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pn   Covars  damagad/ 


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Couvartura  andommagte 


Covars  rastorad  and/or  laminatad/ 
Couvartura  raataurte  at/ou  palliculAa 


I — I    '^ovar  titia  miasing/ 


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10X 

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1 

2 

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1 

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6 

,  ^K. 


HER    MAJESTY,    QUEEN    VICTORIA 


A    ! I i story 


tijf 


Our  Own   Times 


H3ION  OF  gUKEK  VICTtmiA 

OENERATv  ELECTION  OF 
t88o 

BV 

Justin    McCarthy 

of  -The  Four  r>*..«ges,"  "Sir  Rubert  Peel,"  etc. 


■  i<On«.v  j «!-■«;     t-.?, 


SHTARY   CIIAJTKKS    eSINGlNO 


I^i    rrOUR  VOLUM£S.~VOL.     I. 


NEW    YOKK 
M  D  C  C  C  X  C  V. 


Mt.»<    MAJf. 


•t»* 


A  History 


OF 


Our  Own  Times 

rHOM  THt 

ACCESSION  OP  QUEEN  VICTORIA     • 


TO  THB 


GENERAL  ELECTION  OP 
1880 

BY 

Justin   McCarthy 

Author  of  "  The  Four  Georges,"  "  Sir  Robert  Peel,"  etc. 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION,  AND  SUPPLBMBNTARV  CHAPTERS  BRINGING 

THB  WORK  DOWN  TO  MR.  GLADStONS'S  RESIGNATION 

OF  THB  PttEMIBRSHIP  (MARCHf  1894); 

AND  A  NEW  INDEX 

BY 

G.  Mercer  Adam 

Anther  of  "A  Precis  of  EnglUh  History,"  etc. 


IN    FOUR  VOLUMES.— VOL.    L 


NEW    YORK 

UNITED    STATES  BOOK   COMPANY 

MDCCCXCV. 


Copyright,  iScm, 

BY 
UNITED  STATES  BOOK  COMPANY. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.   I. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  King  is  Dead!  Long  Live  the  Queen!   .        .        .  i 

II.  Statesmen  and  Parties, 20 

III.  Canada  and  Lord  Durham, 37 

IV.  Science  and  Speed, 63 

V.  Chartism 77 

VI.  Question  de  Jupons 98 

VII.  The  Queen's  Marriage no 

VIII.  The  Opium  War, 127 

IX.  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Whig  Ministry,     .       .        .  142 

X.  Movements  in  the  Churches, 159 

XL  The  Disasters  of  Cabul, 174 

XII.  The  Repeal  Year .  210 

XIII.  Peel's  Administration 234 

XIV.  Free-trade  and  the  League 250 

XV.  Famine  forces  Peel's  Hand 278 

XVI.  Mr.  Disraeli 296 


Hei 

Jva-] 

Lor 

Lor 

Sir 

Dan 

Ria 

JOH> 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS,  VOL.   l. 


Her  Majesty  the  Queen, 
Justin  McCarthy, 
Lord  Melbourne, 
Lord  Brougham, 
Sir  Robert  Peel, 
Daniel  O'Connell, 
Richard  Cobden, 
John  Bright, 


PAGE 

Frontispiece 


I 

20 

57 

157 

210 

260 
279 


INTRODUCTION. 


BY  THE   EDITOR. 


The  period  embraced  in  Mr.  McCarthy's  instructive  and 
entertaining  *'  History  of  Our  Own  Times"  is,  to  use  a 
convenient  though  relative  term,  that  of  Modern  England, 
from  the  era  of  Queen  Victoria's  Accession.  With  the 
passing  years,  not  only  the  term  "  Modem  England,"  but 
the  title  Mr.  McCarthy  has  chosen  for  his  work,  must  be- 
come a  misnomer;  though  while  Her  Majesty's  beneficent 
reign  lasts  (and  distant  be  the  day  of  its  close!)  it  may  be 
proper  to  regard  our  author's  survey  of  it  as  contemporary 
annals.  Already,  however,  the  era  of  the  Accession,  and 
even  that  of  the  Crimean  War  and  the  Indian  Mutiny,  is, 
to  a  large  portion  of  the  present  generation,  a  remote  one. 
Still  more  remote  does  it  seem  as  the  ranks  are  thinned 
of  the  great  public  personages  whose  careers  shed  lustre 
on  the  early  years  of  the  reign.  Other  actors,  moreover, 
have  taken  their  places,  and  with  the  crowding  on  the 
stage  of  the  new  figures  that  fill  the  foreground  in  the 
drama  of  the  nation's  life,  the  older  figures  naturally  lose 
that  freshness  of  interest  which  made  them  both  near  and 
real  to  their  own  generation.  As  with  men,  so  with  meas- 
ures. New  and  absorbing  issues  have  aris'^n  to  take  the 
place  of  those  that  have  been  threshed  out,  and  have 
either  been  placed  in  the  receptacles  of  history  or  have 
reappeared  in  newer  and  more  democratic  guise.  Yet 
even  in  our  thronged  and,  as  we  boast,  philosophical  age, 
we  do  not  summarily  dispose  of  the  old  issues,  however 
remote  they  may  be  from  immediate  practical  interest. 


\ 


vl 


Introduction. 


L'>       * 


They  still  have  their  lessons,  for  the  present  as  wel^  as  for 
the  coming  time,  and  are  of  value  as  we  discern,  and  have 
the  wisdom  to  profit  by,  the  teachmgs  v;hich  they  embody 
of  experience.  Herein  lies,  in  some  degree  at  least,  the 
work  and,  as  he  may  succeed  in  pciinting  the  moral,  the 
worth  af  the  historian. 

Yet  we  would  not  mistake  the  aim  and  character  of  Mr. 
McCarthy's  History,  for  whatever  other  merits  the  work 
has — and  it  has  many — ^it  is  not  obtrusively  didactic,  nor 
does  it  come  before  us  as  philosophy.  Its  author's  design, 
as  befits  u  sober  and  veracious  chronicle  of  the  feverish 
times  in  which  we  live,  is  much  more  simple,  as  well  as 
useful.  Were  we  asked  in  a  sentence  to  label  the  work, 
we  should  say  that  it  is  a  well-informed,  trustworthy,  and 
entertaining  survey  of  recent  and  contemporary  events  in 
the  history  of  the  British  nation,  interspersed  with  vivid 
sketches  c  f  the  chief  public  characters  that  have  figured 
on  the  political  and  military,  and,  incidentally,  on  the 
literary  and  national  stage,  in  the  past  sixty  years.  The 
"  History"  is  written  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  moderate 
Liberal,  with  great  impartiality  and  manifest  candor  and 
judiciousness.  While  putting  himself  under  these  com- 
mendable restraints,  Mr.  McCarthy's  work  in  its  political 
aspects  is,  however,  neither  vapid  nor  colorless.  As  an 
Irishman  and  a  Home  Ruler,  he  has  his  own  special 
standpoint  and  his  own  views  and  opinions,  though  these, 
it  may  be  said,  never  lead  him  seriously  astray,  and  sel- 
dom cause  him  to  forget,  even  in  dealing  with  highly 
controversial  topics,  the?  neutrality  of  the  historian  Oc- 
casionally, his  dispassionateness  detracts  fron:  the  engross- 
ing interest  one  feels  in  a  more  fervidly  written  narrative, 
though  rare  are  the  passages  throughout  the  work  where 
the  attention  of  the  reader  is  suffered  to  flag.  While  the 
spirit  in  which  the  wor!"-.  is  written  is,  as  we  have  said, 
studiously  impartial,  and  the  author  lives  and  moves  in 
a  world  of  common-sense,  his  History  is  neither  a  jeremiad 
nor  a  panegyric.     He  always  writes  with  discrimination, 


Introduction. 


vfi 


and,  when  occasion  calls,  he  awards  praise  or  apportions 
blame  without  regard  to  party  ties  or  deference  to  any 
judgment  but  his  own.  Even  the  superficial  reader  will 
be  struck  with  this  fine  candor  in  the  writer,  and  be  im- 
pressed with  the  fact  that  in  the  varied  political  portraiture 
with  which  the  book  abounds,  its  author  is  at  once  unprej- 
udiced and  just.  This  spirit  of  fairness  may  be  traced 
even  to  the  close  of  the  book,  where  the  political  questions 
in  which  Mr.  McCarthy  is  known  to  feel  strongly  might 
excuse  a  lapse  into  prejudice  and  a  betrayal  of  his  own 
party  predilections.  To  a  Parliamentarian  in  these  times, 
and  he  the  leader,  too,  of  a  party  in  the  House,  it  must 
have  cost  an  effort  to  be  as  fair  to  Beaconsfield  and  Salis- 
bury as  he  is  fair  to  Russell  and  Gladstone. 

While  Mr.  McCarthy  writes  in  the  spirit  we  have  indi- 
cated— as  a  Briton  rather  than  a  clansman — it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  his  History  comes  down  only  to  the 
year  1880,  Since  that  epoch,  British  politics  have  passed 
through  a  bitter  and  turbulent  era — the  era  of  Home  Rule 
agitation,  Socialistic  upheaval,  industrial  discontent,  and 
Radical  clamor.  But  though  our  author  has  not,  as  yet, 
ventured  to  deal  historically  with  this  period  of  legisla- 
tive obstruction  and  strife,  he  has  himself  been  a  partici- 
pant in  it,  and,  in  the  responsible  position  of  leader  of  a 
section  in  the  House  of  Commons  disturbing  to  British  /ais- 
sez  /aire  and  insular  complaisancy,  he  has  controlled  his 
party  with  the  restraints  of  reason,  while  he  has  personally 
borne  himself  in  a  manner  to  command  the  respect  and 
confidence  of  the  sanest  minds  in  and  out  of  Parliament. 
What  this  attitude  implies  ir  a  public  man  in  the  position 
and  of  the  calibre  of  the  member  for  Longford,  can  be 
realized  only  when  we  call  to  mind  the  gravity  of  national 
affairs,  and  the  position  of  parties,  split  up  into  factions 
seeking  too  often  only  their  own  ends,  in  the  English 
Parliament  during  the  past  two  decades.  To  maintain  a 
statesmanlike  sobriety  and  reserve  in  such  a  mutinous 
body  as  the  English  popular  Chamber  has  of  late  become^ 


\ 


VUl 


Introduction. 


and  pt  the  head  of  an  interest  which  has  sought  for  years, 
and  sought  in  vain,  for  the  redress  of  Ireland's  wrongs, 
is  to  manifest  qualities  of  heart  and  brain  that  should 
win  for  our  author  the  acclaim  of  all  liberty-loving,  pa- 
triotic, and  humane  peoples. 

But  to  do  justice  to  Mr.  McCarthy — and  inadequate,  we 
fear,  is  the  present  attempt — is  to  require  one  to  do  much 
more  than  speak  of  him  as  a  politician  and  discreet  party 
leader  in  \.he  English  Parliament,  In  that  once  august 
Assembly,  though  he  has  a  well -recognized  position  and 
is  esteemed  a  most  useful  member  of  the  House,  his  polit- 
ical relations  with  the  Parliamentary  band  he  leads  have 
not  given  him  that  influence  in  the  councils  of  the  Liberal 
Party,  with  whom  he  acts,  to  which  his  indubitable  tal- 
ents and  great  literary  reputation  entitle  him.  This  is 
part  of  the  penalty  one  must  pay,  in  associating  with 
men  who  either  will  not  or  care  not  fully  to  understand 
your  grievance,  for  allegiance  to  an  unpopular  and  trou- 
blesome cause.  In  spite  of  this,  however,  Mr.  McCarthy 
is  not  without  the  assurance  that  his  presence  and  attitude 
in  the  House,  in  relation  to  the  question  of  Home  Rule  for 
Ireland,  are  helpful  to  the  great  cause  he  and  his  follow- 
ing have  at  heart,  in  educating  public  opinion  on  the  sub- 
ject as  well  as  in  silently  winning  over  friends  to  it, 
among  the  more  just  and  right-minded  Englishmen  both 
in  and  out  of  Parliament.  But  the  advocacy  of  Ireland's 
cause  in  the  Imperial  Parliament  is  but  a  part,  though  a 
considerable  part,  of  the  service  Mr.  McCarthy  has  ren- 
dered, and  happily  is  still  rendering,  to  his  adopted  coun- 
try. In  the  sxercise  of  his  versatile  gifts,  Mr.  McCarthy 
has,  for  a  generation  past,  won  an  honorable  position,  and 
gained  much  influence,  as  an  able  and  accomplished  jour- 
nalist. He  has  also  added  no  little  to  his  literary  reputa- 
tion as  an  entertaining  and  successful  novelist.  Nor  need 
we  point  to  the  interesting  literary  surveys,  appended  to 
each  of  the  present  volumes,  in  proof  of  our  author's  qual- 
ifications as  a  critic.     In  these  several  fields,  as  v;ell  as  in 


Introduction. 


IX 


the  enlivening  pages  of  his  History,  the  member  for 
Longford  has  not  only  achieved  success,  but  honestly  and 
meritoriously  earned  it. 

Despite  Mr.  McCarthy's  versatility,  and  what  he  may 
yet  accomplish  either  in  statesmanship  or  in  letters  (and 
there  is  room  for  further  achievement  in  both,  since  he  is 
still  in  his  prime)  his  chief  reputation,  we  venture  to 
think,  must  rest  on  the  effective  work  he  has  done  in  his 
"History."  It  would,  in  our  opinion,  be  difficult  to  rate 
too  highly  that  unique  performance,  for  unique  it  is  to 
write  a  narrative  of  contemporary  events  in  England  at 
once  so  full  and  perspicuous,  yet  without  unnecessary  and 
wearying  detail — a  narrative  that  is  bright  without  sensa- 
tion, rapid  without  slipping  or  falling  into  error,  and 
holds  the  attention  closely  throughout.  Still  more  diffi- 
cult would  it  be  to  overpraise  the  author's  balance  of 
mind,  his  transparent  honesty  of  purpose,  his  clear  judg- 
ment, and  the  faculty  he  possesses  in  an  eminent  degree 
of  inspiring  confidence.  For  these  safe  things  we  may 
well  forego  literary  brilliance  or  the  coruscations  oF 
genius,  which,  if  we  could  even  trust  these  erratic  quali- 
ties, would  be  singularly  out  of  place  in  "  a  history  of  our 
own  times."  Nor  is  it  the  least  of  Mr.  McCarthy's  merits, 
that  the  lively  interest  he  manifestly  has  taken  in  the 
work  fashioned  by  his  hand  he  imparts  to  the  reader,  with 
the  faculty  of  seeing  things  in  proportion — a  great  point 
in  the  writing  or  reading  of  contemporary  history — while 
he  diffuses  some  of  his  own  cheery  optimism  and  imbues 
his  audience  with  his  strong  sense  of  what  is  both  just 
and  right.  Nor  are  the  artistic  qualities  of  the  litterateur 
and  the  higher  journalism  wanting  in  the  book.  There 
is  a  pleasing  art  of  arrangement  in  presenting  the  topics 
for  review  and  comment,  and  a  dramatic  power  of  intro- 
ducing, analyzing,  and  hitting  off  charpctei.  Very  no- 
ticeable is  this  in  the  striking  and  vivid  portraits  ';;iven 
us  of  Melbourne,  O'Connell,  Wellington,  Russell,  Peel, 
Palmerston,    Cobden,   Bright,    Prince    Albert,   Disraeli, 


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X  Introduction. 

Gladstone,  and,  in  truth,  in  the  whole  series  of  pen- 
pictures  of  the  more  prominent  English  public  men  and 
statesmen  of  the  time.  In  these  studies,  Mr.  McCarthy- 
shows,  at  least,  his  intellectual  sympathy  with  the  great 
personal  forces  which  have  been  instrumental  in  the  mak- 
ing of  modern  England,  and  his  admiration  for  those  types 
of  public  men  which  form  the  basis  of  the  national  char- 
acter. Hardly  less  effective  is  the  compact,  yet  lucid 
and  interesting,  manner  in  which  the  great  public  ques- 
tions of  the  time  are  brought  forward  and  discussed,  and 
with  manifest  justice  to  both  sides,  as  well  as  to  the  par- 
ticipants in  the  controversies.  Here  again,  besides  the 
high  qualities  in  the  narrator,  there  is  remarkable  power 
shown  in  seizing  and  presenting  the  essential  points  of  the 
matter  under  review,  as  well  as  caln^ness  and  impartiality 
in  passing  judgment.  American  readers,  especially,  will 
thank  the  author  for  his  treatment  of  the  international 
questions  with  which  England  has  had  to  deal  during  the 
period  covered  by  the  work.  Here  the  dispassionateness, 
as  well  as  the  sense  of  justice,  in  the  historian  has  to  be 
commended,  particularly  in  the  chapters  dealing  with  the 
American  Civil  War,  and  its  pendent  questions— the  cruise 
of  the  Alabama^  and  the  results  of  the  Alabama  arbitration. 
In  the  treatment  of  these  topics,  which  long  vexed  the  dip- 
lomatic breast  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  Mr.  McCarthy 
has  meted  out  entire  justice  to  the  American  nation, 
without  in  any  measure  being  disloyal  to  England,  though, 
occasionally,  he  is  righteously  indignant  with  her.  A  broad 
humanity  characterizes  the  author's  discussion  of  other 
matters  touching  England's  relations  with  foreign  powers 
and  her  own  dependencies,  within  the  period  of  the  reign, 
including,  besides  the  greater  and  lesser  wars  in  which 
she  has  been  engaged,  such  matters  as  the  Indian  mutiny, 
the  Jamaica  rising,  the  Polish  insurrection,  and  the  rebel- 
lion in  Hungary. 

Not  less  worthy  of  note  is  Mr.  McCarthy's  wise  treat- 
ment of  home  affairs  wiihin  the  kingdom,  including  the 


Introduction. 


XI 


discussion  of  the  chief  burning  questions  of  the  period, 
from  the  era  of  the  Corn  Law  agitation  to  that  of  the  in- 
dustrial wars  and  socialistic  outbreaks  that  menace  Eng- 
land's domestic  peace  in  our  own  time.     His  views  on 
these  grave  topics,  though  rarely  profound,  are  usually 
apt  and  sensible,  reaching  always  the  kernel  of  the  matter, 
and  pret-enting  it  with  kindly  and  conciliatory  comment 
and  a  large  admixture  of  humane  feeling.     Even  on  the 
subject  of  Irish  grievances,  when  our  author  suffers  him- 
self to  touch  on  them,  there  is  no  bitterness,  though  some 
pathos;  and  where  England  is  arraigned,  the  strictures 
are  comparatively  mild  and  reserved.     Unfortunately,  as 
we  have  previously  remarked,  the  History  breaks  off  just 
as  Home  Rule  comes  aggressively  on  the  political  scene, 
and  the  topic  on  which,  above  all  others,  we  should  like 
to  hear  Mr.  McCarthy  discourse  is  tantalizingly  denied  to 
us.     How  guardedly,  however,  he  would  have  dealt  with 
the  matter,  had  it  come  within  his  historical  purview,  we 
know  from  the  tone  and  tenor  of  his  treatment  of  earlier 
Irish  subjects,  such  as  Ribbonism,  the  Fenian  movement, 
Young  Ireland,  Irish  Church  disestablishment,  and  other 
Celtic  themes.    On  the  great  controversy,  and  remembering 
that,  if  he  wrote  at  all,  he  must  write  primarily  for  Eng- 
lishmen and  the  English-speaking  race  over  the  world,  it 
is  not  improbable  that  our  author  congratulated  himself 
that  he  was  not  called  upon  to  touch.     We  say  this,  of 
course,  not  because  Mr.  McCarthy  lacks  the  courage  of 
his  opinions,  but  because  the  topic  is  one  which  literature 
is  obviously  loath  to  take  up,  particularly  in  the  heat  of 
action,  aggravated  as  it  has  been  by  the  tactics  of  another 
wing  of  the  Irish  Nationalists  with  whom  our  author  has 
little  in  common,   and  whose  impolitic  attitude  in  the 
House  was  certain  to  defeat,  rather  than  to  advance,  the 
object  seriously  at  heart.     This  presumed  objection  to 
discussing  Home  Rule  prematurely,  and  before  the  ques- 
tion has  been  finally  disposed  of,  doubtless  our  author  has 
regarded  and,  it  may  be,  still  regards  with  favor,  though 


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Introduction. 


i    : 


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it  deprives  many  readers  of  his  History,  and  many  more 
of  the  friends  of  the  cause  on  both  sides  of  the  sea,  of  the 
advantage  and  certitude  of  fully  knowing  his  opinions. 

In  allusion  to  this  topic,  and  to  it  chiefly,  it  is  with  no 
feigned  regret  that  the  present  writer  feels  that  Mr. 
McCarthy  has  been  influenced,  doubtless  among  others,  by 
the  motive  we  have  ascribed  to  him,  and  has  not  again 
taken  up  his  pen  to  continue  his  History.  In  undertak- 
ing our  present  task,  still  less  feigned  was  the  hesitancy 
we  felt  in  venturing,  not,  of  course,  to  fill  our  author's 
place  (for  that  would  have  been  far  beyond  our  poor 
powers),  but  to  comply  with  the  popular  demand  for  an 
added  chapter  or  two,  covering,  in  brief  outline,  the 
events  in  the  national  history  occurring  in  the  last  fifteen 
years.  Only  the  impression  made  upon  us  by  the  very 
general  request  for  a  continuation  of  the  History,  and  the 
conviction  in  our  mind  that  it  was  not  likely  soon  to  be 
met  by  the  author  himself  could  have  emboldened  us  to 
supply  it.  In  stepping  reluctantly  into  the  breach,  it  is 
only  ?3ecessary  to  add  that  the  reader's  indulgence  is  asked 
for  the  work  of  a  substitute. 


JUSTIN  McCarthy,  m.p. 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  KING  IS  dead!      LONG    LIVE  THE  QUEEN ! 

Before  half-past  two  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  June 
aoth,  1837,  William  IV.  was  lying  dead  in  Windsor  Castle, 
while  the  messengers  were  already  hurrying  off  to  Ken- 
sington Palace  to  bear  to  his  successor  her  summons  to  the 
throne.  The  illness  of  the  King  had  been  but  short,  and 
at  one  time,  even  after  it  had  been  pronounced  alarming,  it 
seemed  to  take  so  hopeful  a  turn  that  the  physicians  began 
to  think  it  would  pass  harmlessly  away.  But  the  King  was 
an  old  man — was  an  old  man  even  when  he  came  to  the 
throne — and  when  the  dangerous  symptoms  again  exhib- 
ited tb'-mselves,  their  warning  was  very  soon  followed  by 
fulfilment.  The  death  of  King  William  may  be  fairly 
regarded  as  having  closed  an  era  of  our  history.  With 
him,  we  may  believe,  ended  the  reign  of  personal  govern- 
ment in  England.  William  was,  indeed,  a  constitutional 
king  in  more  than  mere  name.  He  was  to  the  best  of  his 
light  a  faithful  representative  of  the  constitutional  prin- 
ciple. He  was  as  far  in  advance  of  his  two  predecessors 
in  understanding  and  acceptance  of  the  principle  as  his 
successor  has  proved  herself  beyond  him.  Constitutional 
government  has  developed  itself  gradually,  as  everything 
else  has  done  in  English  politics.  The  written  principle 
and  code  of  its  system  it  would  be  as  vain  to  look  for  as 
for  the  British  Constitution  itself.  King  William  still  held 
Vol.  I.— I 


I- 


I 


V  I 

;  I 


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a  A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 

to  and  exercised  the  right  to  dismiss  his  ministers  when 
he  pleased,  and  because  he  pleased.  His  father  had  held 
to  the  right  of  maintaining  favorite  ministers  in  defiance 
of  repeated  votes  of  the  House  of  Commo  is.  It  would  not 
be  easy  to  find  any  written  rule  or  declaration  of  constitu- 
tional law  pronouncing  decisively  that  either  was  in  the 
wrong.  But  in  our  day  we  should  believe  that  the  consti- 
tutional freedom  of  England  was  outraged,  or  at  least  put 
in  the  extremest  danger,  if  a  sovereign  were  to  dismiss  a 
ministry  at  mere  pleasure,  or  to  retain  it  in  spite  of  tht 
expressed  wish  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Virtually, 
therefore,  there  was  still  personal  government  in  the  reign 
of  William  IV.  With  his  death  the  long  chapter  of  its 
history  came  to  an  end.  We  find  it  difficult  now  to  be- 
lieve that  it  was  a  living  principle,  openly  at  work  among 
us,  ii  not  openly  acknowledged,  so  lately  as  in  the  reign 
of  King  William, 

The  closing  scenes  of  King  William's  life  were  un- 
doubtedly characterized  by  some  personal  dignity.  As  a 
rule,  sovereigns  show  that  they  know  how  to  die.  Per- 
haps the  necessary  consequence  of  their  training,  by  virtue 
of  which  they  come  to  regard  themselves  always  as  the 
central  figures  in  great  state  pageantry,  is  to  make  them 
assume  a  manner  of  dignity  on  all  occasions  when  the  eyes 
of  their  subjects  may  be  supposed  to  be  on  them,  even  if 
the  dignity  of  bearing  is  not  the  free  gift  of  nature.  The 
manners  of  William  IV.  had  been,  like  those  of  most  of 
his  brothers,  somewhat  rough  and  overbearing.  He  had 
been  an  unmanageable  naval  officer.  He  had  again  and 
again  disregarded  or  disobeyed  orders,  and  at  last  it  had 
been  found  convenient  to  withdraw  him  from  active  service 
altogether,  and  allow  him  to  rise  through  the  successive 
ranks  of  his  profession  by  a  merely  formal  and  technical 
process  of  ascent.  In  his  more  private  capacity  he  had, 
when  younger,  indulged  more  than  once  in  unseemly  and 
insufferable  freaks  of  temper.  He  had  made  himself  un- 
popular, while  Duke  of  Clarence,  by  his  strenuous  opposi- 


Tbe  King  is  Dead/  Long  Live  the  Queen/  3 

tion  to  some  of  the  measures  which  were  especially  desired 
by  all  the  enlightenment  of  the  country.  He  was,  for  ex- 
ample, a  determined  opponent  of  the  measures  for  the 
abolition  of  the  slave-trade.  He  had  wrangled  publicly, 
in  open  debate,  with  some  of  his  brothers  in  the  House  of 
Lords ;  and  words  had  been  interchanged  among  the  royal 
princes  which  could  not  be  heard  in  our  day  even  in  the 
hottest  debates  of  the  more  turbulent  House  of  Commons. 
But  William  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  men  whom 
increased  responsibility  improves.  He  was  far  better  as  a 
king  than  as  a  prince.  He  proved  that  he  was  able  at 
least  to  understand  that  first  duty  of  a  constitutional  sov- 
ereign  which,  to  the  last  day  of  his  active  life,  his  father, 
George  HI.,  never  could  be  brought  to  comprehend — that 
the  personal  predilections  and  prejudices  of  the  King  must 
sometimes  give  way  to  the  public  interest. 

Nothing  perhaps  in  life  became  him  like  the  leaving 
of  it.  His  closing  days  were  marked  by  gentleness  and 
kindly  consideration  for  the  feelings  of  those  around  him. 
When  he  awoke  on  June  i8th  he  remembered  that  it  was 
the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo.  He  expressed 
a  strong  pathetic  wish  to  live  over  that  day,  even  if  he 
were  never  to  see  another  sunset.  He  called  for  the  flag 
which  the  Duke  of  Wellington  always  sent  him  on  that 
anniversary,  and  he  laid  his  hand  upon  the  eagle  which 
adorned  it,  and  said  he  felt  revived  by  the  touch.  He  had 
himself  attended,  since  his  accession,  the  Waterloo  ban- 
quet ;  but  this  time  the  Duke  of  Wellington  thought  it 
would  perhaps  be  more  seemly  to  have  the  dinner  put  oflf, 
and  sent  accordingly  to  take  the  wishes  of  his  Majesty. 
The  King  declared  that  the  dinner  must  go  on  as  usual, 
and  sent  to  the  Duke  a  friendly,  simple  message  express- 
ing his  hope  that  the  guests  might  have  a  pleasant  day. 
He  talked  in  his  homely  way  to  those  about  him,  his 
direct  language  seeming  to  acquire  a  sort  of  tragic  dignity 
from  the  approach  of  the  death  that  was  so  near.  He  had 
prayers  read  to  him  again  and  again,  and  called  those  near 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


II: 


him  to  witness  that  he  had  always  been  a  faithful  believer 
in  the  truths  of  religion.  He  had  his  dispatch-boxes 
brought  to  him,  and  tried  to  get  through  some  business 
with  his  private  secretary.  It  was  remarked  with  some 
interest  that  the  last  official  act  he  ever  performed  was  to 
sign  with  his  trembling  hand  the  pardon  of  a  condemned 
criminal.  Even  a  far  nobler  reign  than  his  would  have 
received  new  dignity  if  it  closed  with  a  deed  of  mercy. 
When  some  of  those  around  him  endeavored  to  encourage 
him  with  the  idea  that  he  might  recover  and  live  many 
years  yet,  he  declared,  with  a  simplicity  which  had  some- 
thing oddly  pathetic  in  it,  that  he  would  be  willing  to  live 
ten  years  yet  for  the  sake  of  the  country.  The  poor  King 
was  evidently  under  the  sincere  conviction  that  England 
could  hardly  get  on  without  him.  His  consideration  for 
his  country,  whatever  whimsical  thoughts  it  may  suggest, 
is  entitled  to  some,  at  least,  of  the  respect  which  we  give 
to  the  dying  groan  of  a  Pitt  or  a  Mirabeau,  who  fears  with 
too  much  reason  that  he  leaves  a  blank  not  easily  to  be 
filled.  "  Young  royal  tarry  breeks"  William  had  been 
jocularly  called  by  Robert  Burns  fifty  years  before,  when 
there  was  yet  a  popular  belief  that  he  would  come  all  right 
and  do  brilliant  and  gallant  things,  and  become  a  stout 
sailor  in  whom  a  seafaring  nation  might  feel  pride.  He 
disappointed  all  such  expectations;  but  it  must  be  owned 
that  when  responsibility  came  upon  him  he  disappointed 
expectation  anew  in  a  different  way,  and  was  a  better 
sovereign,  more  deserving  of  the  complimentary  title  of 
patriot-king,  than  even  his  friends  would  have  ventured 
to  anticipate. 

There  were  eulogies  pronounced  upon  him  after  his  death 
in  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  as  a  matter  of  course.  It  is 
not  necessary,  however,  to  set  down  to  mere  court  homage 
or  parliamentary  form  some  of  the  praises  that  were  be- 
stowed on  the  dead  King  by  Lord  Melbourne  and  Lord 
Brougham  and  Lord  Grey.  A  certain  tone  of  sincerity, 
not  quite  free,  perhaps,  from   surprise,  appears  to  run 


''  The  King  is  Dead/  Long  Live  the  Queen/  ^ 

through  some  of  these  expressions  of  admiration.  They 
seem  to  say  that  the  speakers  were  at  one  time  or  another 
considerably  surprised  to  find  that,  after  all,  William 
really  was  able  and  willing  on  grave  occasions  to  subor- 
dinate his  personal  likings  and  dislikings  to  considerations 
of  state  policy,  and  to  what  was  shown  to  him  to  be  for 
the  good  of  the  nation.  In  this  sense  at  least  he  may  be 
called  a  patriot-king.  We  have  advanced  a  good  deal  since 
that  time,  and  we  require  somewhat  higher  and  more  posi- 
tive qualities  in  a  sovereign  now  to  excite  our  political 
wonder.  But  we  must  judge  William  by  the  reigns  that 
went  before,  and  not  the  reign  that  came  after  him ;  and, 
with  that  consideration  borne  in  mind,  we  may  accept  the 
panegyric  of  Lord  Melbourne  and  of  Lord  Grey,  and  admit 
that  on  the  whole  he  was  better  than  his  education,  his 
early  opportunities,  and  his  early  promise. 

William  IV.  (third  son  of  George  III.)  had  left  no  chil- 
dren who  could  have  succeeded  to  the  throne,  and  the 
crown  passed,  therefore,  to  the  daughter  of  his  brother 
(fourth  son  of  George),  the  Duke  of  Kent.  This  was  the 
Princess  Alexandrina  Victoria,  who  was  bom  at  Kensing- 
ton Palace  on  May  24th,  1819.  The  Princess  was,  there- 
fore, at  this  time  little  more  than  eighteen  years  of  age. 
The  Duke  of  Kent  died  a  few  months  after  the  birth  of  his 
daughter,  and  the  child  was  brought  up  under  the  care  of 
his  widow.  She  was  well  brought  up:  both  as  regards 
her  intellect  and  her  character  her  training  was  excellent. 
She  was  taught  to  be  self-reliant,  brave,  and  systematical. 
Prudence  and  economy  were  inculcated  on  her  as  though 
she  had  been  bom  to  be  poor.  One  is  not  generally  in- 
clined to  attach  much  importance  to  what  historians  tell 
us  of  the  education  of  contemporary  princes  or  princesses ; 
but  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  Princess  Victoria  was 
trained  for  intelligence  and  goodness. 

"The  death  of  the  King  of  England  has  everywhere 
caused  the  greatest  sensation.  .  .  .  Cousin  Victoria  is  said 
to  have  shown  astonishing  self-possession.     She  undertakes 


. ' 


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j4  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


a  heavy  responsibility,  especially  at  the  present  moment, 
when  parties  are  so  excited,  and  all  rest  their  hopes  on 
her. "  These  words  are  an  extract  from  a  letter  written 
on  July  4th,  1837,  by  the  late  Prince  Albert,  the  Prince 
Consort  of  so  many  happy  years.  The  letter  Vvraa  written 
to  the  Prince's  father,  from  Bonn.  The  young  Queen  had, 
indeed,  behaved  with  remarkable  self-possession.  There 
is  a  pretty  description,  which  has  been  often  quoted,  but 
will  bear  citing  once  more,  given  by  Miss  Wynn,  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  young  sovereign  received  the  news 
of  her  accession  to  a  throne.  The  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, Dr.  Howley,  and  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  the  Mar- 
quis of  Conyngham,  left  Windsor  for  Kensington  Palace, 
where  the  Princess  Victoria  had  been  residing,  to  inform 
her  of  the  King's  death.  It  was  two  hours  after  midnight 
when  they  started,  and  they  did  not  reach  Kensington  until 
;five  o'clock  in  the  morning.  "  They  knocked,  they  rang, 
they  thumped  for  a  considerable  time  before  they  could 
rouse  the  porter  at  the  gate ;  they  were  again  kept  waiting 
in  the  court-yard,  then  turned  into  one  of  the  lower  rooms, 
where  they  seemed  forgotten  by  everybody.  They  rang 
the  bell,  and  desired  that  the  attendant  of  the  Princess 
Victoria  might  be  sent  to  inform  her  Royal  Highness  that 
they  requested  an  audience  on  business  of  importance. 
After  another  delay,  and  another  ringing  to  inquire  the 
cause,  the  attendant  was  summoned,  who  stated  that  the 
Prince.^s  was  in  such  a  sweet  sleep  that  she  could  not  ven- 
ture to  disturb  her.  Then  they  said,  'We  are  come  on 
business  of  state  to  the  Queen,  and  even  her  sleep  must 
give  way  to  that. '  It  did,  and  to  prove  that  she  did  not 
keep  them  waiting,  in  a  few  minutes  she  came  into  the 
room  in  a  loose  white  night-gown  and  shawl,  her  nightcap 
thrown  oft,  and  her  hair  falling  upon  her  shoulders,  her 
feet  in  slippers,  tears  in  her  eyes,  but  perfectly  collected 
aiid  dignified."  The  Prime-minister,  Lord  Melbourne, 
was  presently  sent  for,  and  a  meeting  of  the  privy  council 
summoned  for  eleven  o'clock,  when  the  Lord  Chancellor 


f  I' 


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administered  the  usual  oaths  to  the  Queen,  and  her 
Majesty  received  in  return  the  oaths  of  allegiance  of  the 
cabinet  ministers  and  other  privy  councillors  present. 
Mr.  Greville,  who  was  usually  as  little  disposed  to  record 
any  enthusiastic  admiration  of  royalty  and  royal  person- 
ages as  Humboldt  or  Varnhagen  von  Ense  could  have  been, 
has  described  the  scene  in  words  well  worthy  of  quotation : 
•'  The  King  died  at  twenty  minutes  after  two  yesterday 
morning,  and  the  young  Queen  met  Ihe  council  at  Kensing- 
ton Palace  at  eleven.  Never  was  anything  like  the  first  i*n- 
pression  she  produced,  or  the  chorus  of  praise  and  admir- 
ation which  is  raised  about  her  manner  and  behavior, 
and  certainly  not  without  justice.  It  was  very  extraordi- 
nary, and  something  far  beyond  what  was  looked  for.  Her 
extreme  youth  and  inexperience,  and  the  ignorance  of  the 
world  concerning  her,  naturally  excited  intense  curiosity 
to  see  how  she  would  act  on  this  trying  occasion,  and  there 
was  a  considerable  assemblage  at  the  palace,  notwithstand- 
ing the  short  notice  which  was  given.  The  first  thing  to 
be  done  was  to  teach  her  her  lesson,  which,  for  this  pur- 
pose, Melbourne  had  himself  to  learn.  .  .  .  She  bowed 
to  the  lords,  took  her  seat,  and  then  read  her  speech  in  a 
clear,  distinct,  and  audible  voice,  and  without  any  appear- 
ance of  fear  or  embarrassment.  She  was  quite  plainly 
dressed,  and  in  mourning.  After  she  had  read  her  speech, 
and  taken  and  signed  the  oath  for  the  security  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  the  privy  councillors  were  sworn,  the 
two  royal  dukes  first  by  themselves ;  and  as  these  two  old 
men,  her  uncles,  knelt  before  her,  swearing  allegiance  and 
kissing  her  hand,  I  saw  her  blush  up  to  the  eyes,  as  if  she 
felt  the  contrast  between  their  civil  and  their  natural  rela- 
tions, and  this  was  the  only  sign  of  emotion  which  she 
evinced.  Her  manner  to  them  was  very  graceful  and  en- 
gaging ;  she  kissed  them  both,  and  rose  from  her  chair  and 
moved  toward  the  Duke  of  Sussex,  who  was  farthest  from 
her,  and  too  infirm  to  reach  her.  She  seemed  rather 
bewildered  at  the  multitude  of  men  who  were  sworn,  and 


t^ 


l^M 


i;i 


h 


fl;       * 


a 


j4  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


who  came,  one  after  another,  to  kiss  her  hand,  but  she  did 
not  speak  to  anybody,  nor  did  she  make  the  slightest  dif- 
ference in  her  manner,  or  show  any  in  her  countenance, 
to  any  individual  of  any  rank,  station,  or  party.  I  partic- 
ularly watched  her  when  Melbourne  and  the  ministers 
and  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Peel  approached  her. 
She  went  through  the  whole  ceremony,  occasionally  look- 
ing at  Melbourne  for  instruction  when  she  had  any  doubt 
what  to  do,  which  hardly  ever  occurred,  and  with  perfect 
calmness  and  self-possession,  but  at  the  same  time  with  a 
graceful  modesty  and  propriety  particularly  interesting 
and  ingratiating. " 

Sir  Robert  Peel  told  Mr.  Greville  that  he  was  amazed  at 
"  her  manner  and  behavior,  at  her  apparent  deep  sense  of 
her  situation,  and  at  the  same  time  her  firmness. "  The 
Duke  of  Wellii  gton  said  in  his  blunt  way  that  if  she  had 
been  his  own  daughter  he  could  not  have  desired  to  see 
her  perform  her  part  better.  "At  twelve,"  says  Mr. 
Greville,  "  she  held  a  council,  at  which  she  presided  with 
as  much  ease  as  if  she  had  been  doing  nothing  else  all  her 
life ;  and  though  Lord  Lansdowne  and  my  colleague  had 
contrived,  between  them,  to  make  some  confusion  with 
the  council  papers,  she  was  not  put  out  by  it.  She  looked 
very  well ;  and  though  so  small  in  stature,  and  without 
much  pretension  to  beauty,  the  gracefulness  of  her  manner 
and  the  good  expression  of  her  countenance  give  her,  on 
the  whole,  a  very  agreeable  appearance,  and,  with  her 
youth,  inspire  an  excessive  interest  in  all  who  approach 

her,  and  which  I  can't  help  feeling  myself In 

short,  she  appears  to  act  with  every  sort  of  good  taste  and 
good  feeling,  as  well  as  good  sense ;  and,  as  far  as  it  has 
gone,  nothing  can  be  more  favorable  than  the  impression 
she  has  made,  and  nothing  can  promise  better  than  her 
manner  and  conduct  do;  though,"  Mr.  Greville  somewhat 
superfluously  adds,  *'  it  would  be  rash  to  count  too  confi- 
dently upon  her  judgment  and  discretion  in  more  weighty 
matters.  ' 


yo 
wc 

sti 
cii 


■«ll!^^i!l<^ilJ^^0^*■'^^ 


The  King  is  Dead!  Long  Live  the  Queen!  9 

The  interest  or  curiosity  with  which  the  demeanor  of  the 
young  Queen  was  watched  was  all  the  keener  because  the 
world  in  general  knew  so  little  about  her.  Not  merely 
was  the  world  in  general  thus  ignorant,  but  even  the 
statesmen  and  officials  in  closest  communication  with  court 
circles  were  in  almost  absolute  ignorance.  According  to 
Mr.  Greville,  whose  authority,  however,  is  not  to  be  taken 
too  implicitly  except  as  to  matters  which  he  actually  saw, 
the  young  Queen  had  been  previously  kept  in  such  seclu- 
sion by  her  mother — "never,"  he  says,  "having  slept  out 
of  her  bedroom,  nor  been  alone  with  anybody  but  herself 
and  the  Baroness  Lehzen" — that  "  not  one  of  her  acquaint- 
ance, none  of  the  attendants  at  Kensington,  not  even  the 
Duchess  of  Northumberland,  her  governess,  have  any  idea 
what  she  is  or  what  she  promises  to  be."  There  was 
enough  in  the  court  of  the  two  sovereigns  who  went  before 
Queen  Victoria  to  justify  any  strictness  of  seclusion  which 
the  Duchess  of  Kent  might  desire  for  her  daughter. 
George  IV.  was  a  Charles  II.  without  the  education  or  the 
talents ;  V/illiam  IV.  was  a  Frederick  William  of  Prussia 
without  the  genius.  The  ordinary  manners  of  the  society 
at  the  court  of  either  had  a  full  flavor,  to  put  it  in  the  soft- 
est way,  such  as  a  decent  tap-room  would  hardly  exhibit 
in  a  time  like  the  present.  No  one  can  read  even  the 
most  favorable  descriptions  given  by  contemporaries  of 
the  manners  of  those  two  courts  without  feeling  grateful 
to  the  Duchess  of  Kent  for  resoh  ing  that  her  daughter 
should  see  as  little  as  possible  of  their  ways  and  their 
company. 

It  was  remarked  with  some  interest  that  the  Queen  sub- 
scribed herself  simply  "Victoria,"  and  not,  as  had  been 
expected,  "Alexandrina  Victoria."  Mr.  Greville  men- 
tions in  his  diary  of  December  24th,  1819,  that  "the  Duke 
of  Kent  gave  the  name  of  Alexandrina  to  his  daughter  in 
compliment  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia.  She  was  to  have 
had  the  name  of  Georgiana,  but  the  Duke  insisted  upon 
Alexandrina  being  her  first  name.     The  Regent  sent  for 


IG 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


*  i 


Lieven"  (the  Russian  ambassador,  husband  of  the  famous 
Princess  de  Lieven) ,  "  and  made  him  a  great  many  com- 
pliments, en  le  persiflanty  on  the  Emperor's  being  godfather, 
but  informed  him  that  the  name  of  Georgiana  could  be 
second  to  no  other  in  this  country,  and  therefore  she  could 
not  bear  it  at  all. "  It  was  a  very  wise  choice  to  employ 
simply  the  name  of  Victoria,  around  which  no  ungenial 
associations  of  any  kind  hung  at  that  time,  and  which  can 
have  only  gprateful  associations  in  the  history  of  this  coun- 
try for  the  future. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  any  formal  description  of 
the  various  ceremonials  and  pageantries  which  celebrated 
the  accession  of  the  new  sovereign.  The  proclamation  of 
the  Queen,  her  appearance  for  the  first  time  on  the  throne 
in  the  House  of  Lords  when  she  prorogued  Parliament  in 
person,  and  even  the  gorgeous  festival  of  her  coronation, 
which  took  place  on  June  28th^  in  the  following  year, 
1838,  may  be  passed  over  with  a  mere  word  of  record. 
It  is  worth  mentioning,  however,  that  at  the  coronation 
procession  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  figures  was  that  of 
Marshal  Soult,  Duke  of  Dalmatia,  the  opponent  of  Moore 
and  Wellington  in  the  Peninsula,  the  commander  of  the 
Old  Guard  at  Liitzen.  and  one  of  the  strong  arms  of  Napo- 
leon at  Waterloo.  Soult  had  been  sent  as  ambassador- 
extraordinary  to  represent  the  French  Government  and 
people  at  the  coronation  of  Queen  Victoria,  and  nothing 
could  exceed  the  enthusiasm  with  which  he  was  received 
by  the  crowds  in  the  streets  of  London  on  that  day.  The 
white-haired  soldier  was  cheered  wherever  a  glimpse  of 
his  face  or  figure  could  be  cau jht.  He  appeared  in  the 
procession  in  a  carriage,  the  frame  of  which  had  been  used 
on  occasions  of  state  by  some  of  the  Princes  of  the  House 
of  Cond^,  and  which  Soult  had  had  splendidly  decorated 
for  the  ceremony  of  the  coronation.  Even  the  Austrian 
ambassador,  says  an  oye-witness,  attracted  less  attention 
than  Soult,  although  the  dress  of  the  Austrian  Prince 
Esterhazy,  "down  to  his  very  bootheels,  sparkled  with 


mmmm 


I  ii. iiwiiim 


''aaSiSi»liift««^««^'^^V' 


The  King  is  Dead!  Long  Live  the  Queen  f         ii 


diamonds. "  The  comparison  savors  now  of  the  ridiculous, 
but  is  remarkably  expressive  and  effective.  Prince  Ester- 
hazy's  name  in  those  days  suggested  nothing  but  dia- 
monds. His  diamonds  may  be  said  to  glitter  through 
all  the  light  literature  of  the  time.  When  Lady  Mary 
Wortley  Montagu  wanted  a  comparison  with  which  to 
illustrate  excessive  splendor  and  brightness,  she  found  it 
in  "  Mr.  Pitt's  diamonds. "  Prince  Esterhazy's  served  the 
same  purpose  for  the  writers  of  the  early  years  of  the 
present  reign.  It  was,  therefore,  perhaps,  no  very  poor 
tribute  to  the  stout  old  moustache  of  the  Republic  and  the 
Empire  to  say  that  at  a  London  pageant  his  war-worn  face 
drew  attention  away  from  Prince  Esterhazy's  diamonds. 
Soult  himself  felt  very  warmly  the  genuine  kindness  of 
the  reception  given  to  him.  Years  after,  in  a  debate  in 
the  French  Chamber,  when  M.  Guizot  was  accused  of  too 
much  partiality  for  the  English  alliance.  Marshal  Soult 
declared  himself  a  warm  champion  of  that  alliance.  "  I 
fought  the  English  down  to  Toulouse,"  he  said,  "when  I 
fired  the  last  cannon  in  defence  of  the  national  indepen- 
dence ;  in  the  mean  time  I  have  been  in  London,  and  France 
knows  the  reception  which  I  had  there.  The  English 
themselves  cried  'Vive  Soult!' — they  cried  'Soult  forever!' 
I  had  learned  to  estimate  the  English  on  the  field  of  bat- 
tle; I  have  learned  to  estimate  them  in  peace;  and  I 
repeat  that  I  am  a  warm  partisan  of  the  English  alliance." 
History  is  not  exclusively  made  by  cabinets  and  profes- 
sional diplomatists.  It  is  highly  probable  that  the  cheers 
of  a  London  crowd  on  the  day  of  the  Queen's  coronation 
did  something  genuine  and  substantial  to  restore  the  good 
feeling  between  this  country  and  France,  and  efface  the 
bitter  memories  of  Waterloo. 

It  is  a  fact  well  worthy  of  note,  amid  whatever  records 
of  court  ceremonial  and  of  political  change,  that  a  few 
days  after  the  accession  of  the  Queen,  Mr.  Montefiore  was 
elected  Sheriff  of  London,  the  first  Jew  who  had  ever 
been  chosen  for  that  office ;  and  that  he  received  knight- 


12 


'If* 


V  '/    ■'' 


ml 


H 


If  i 


^  ff'story  Of  Our  Own  Time,. 


ho  d  —  '^nies. 

£the1on^^^^^^^  visited  th.  City 

whom. royalty  had  honored  Tn  .h7'     ^^  ^^«  '^^  ^rst  Jew 
°id  times  when  royalty  was  nl.'°"°'^  ^^'^^^  the  iod 
'noney  or  order  instead  The  ll^^Tt  '°  ^°"°^  the  jf  ^'f 
expansion  of  the  princinl.^/  extraction  of  his  teeth     Thl 
which  has  been  one  of  ?^        ""    '^'°"'  ^^^^^^y  and  em,«i^* 

presented  to  the  On      ^"^^^^^  to  the  Act  of  All.  • 

between  the  interests  of  thfs T!"^  *''*'  *''^»  «oot  puZ 
l^g  family  of  these  realms  and'"^'."'  '*  '^^«  'he  reS^! 
f°r  a  long  time  been  bound  „n  f^f  ^'■'"^>  ^'"'^h  h^d 
dom  satisfactory  to  the  pLr'^u^*"'^'' '°  «  "anner  sel 
historv  of  »„  I     J  .       *'°g"sh  peonle      T„  ..i. 

'"'/  ot  iingland  it  win  ^.    t  F=opie.    la  the  wholo 

have  provoked  ereJL  f  "^served  that  few  »^^„ 

connection  of  a  f2nZ  T^'^^,''  "'^^'^fection  than  T 

^hip  of  some  forSX  site  ""'ir'"?  '"^  <=-"°  orZt- 
pusy  on  such  a  point  whi^h     "  ''^''^  '»  a°  instinctive  ieal 

>«  no.  unnatural!    A^ot  'reirTp'"/' '''  "°^~ble" 
sovereign  of  England   and  of       ^"^'^""'  ^ad  better  be 
favorable  auspices  attended  tL"°  *°''"'^°  State.     Many 
^ona  to  the  throne;  sometMasVofT '°°  °'^'^-  ^^• 
th  nt  ^f  '"''•     'The  country  wal  t       '^  '^^'•^  associated 
thmk  that  the  accession  of  a  I  ^*''^''*'  ^^posed  to 

somewhat  clarify  and  purify  trrT  '° '"*  ""•»■«  would 


5d  th^  City 
B  first  Jew 
'  the  good 
the  Jew's 
'th.     The 
equality, 
cteristics 
een  more 
It  which 

legiance 
that  of 

lerland. 

8  a  few 

•k  place 

'  reig-n- 

ch  had 

»er  sel- 
whole 

things 

m  the 

ruler- 

5  jeal- 

lable, 

er  be 

^fany 
Vic- 

iated 

id  to 

ould 

>urt. 

;ctly 

had 

and 

:es- 

gfns 


The  King  is  Dead  I  Lor-'  Live  the  Queen  t         13 

The  crown  of  Hanover  was  limited  in  its  descent  to  the 
male  line,  and  it  passed  on  the  death  of  William  IV.  to 
his  eldest  surviving  brother,  Ernest,  Duke  of  Cumberland. 
The  change  was  in  almost  every  way  satisfactory  to  the 
EInglish  people.  The  indirect  connection  between  Eng- 
land and  Hanover  had  at  no  time  been  a  matter  of  gratifi- 
cation to  the  public  of  this  country.  Many  cooler  and 
more  enlightened  persons  than  honest  Squire  Western  had 
viewed  with  disfavor,  and  at  one  time  with  distrust,  the 
division  of  interests  which  the  ownership  of  the  two  crowns 
seemed  almost  of  necessity  to  create  in  our  English  sov- 
ereigns. Besides,  it  must  be  owned  that  the  people  of  this 
country  were  not  by  any  means  sorry  to  be  rid  of  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland.  Not  many  of  George  IH.'s  sons  were 
popular ;  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  was  probably  the  least 
popular  of  all.  He  was  believed  by  many  persons  to  have 
had  something  more  than  an  indirect,  or  passive,  or  inno- 
cent share  in  the  Orange  plot,  discovered  and  exposed  by 
Joseph  Hume  in  1835,  for  setting  aside  the  claims  of  the 
young  Princess  Victoria,  and  putting  himself,  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  on  the  throne ;  a  scheme  which  its  authors 
pretended  to  justify  by  the  preposterous  assertion  that  they 
feared  the  Duke  of  Wellington  would  otherwise  seize  the 
crown  for  himself.  His  manners  were  rude,  overbearing, 
and  sometimes  even  brutal.  He  had  personal  habits 
which  seemed  rather  fitted  for  the  days  of  Tiberius,  or  for 
the  court  of  Peter  the  Great,  than  for  the  time  and  sphere 
to  which  he  belonged.  Rumor  not  unnaturally  exagger- 
ated his  defects,  and  in  the  mouths  of  many  his  name  was 
the  symbol  of  the  darkest  and  fiercest  passions,  and  even 
crimes.  Some  of  the  popular  reports  with  regard  to  him 
had  their  foundation  only  in  the  common  detestation  of 
his  character  and  dread  of  his  influence ;  but  it  is  certain 
that  he  was  profligate,  selfish,  overbearing,  and  quarrel- 
some. A  man  with  these  qualities  would  usually  be  de- 
scribed in  fiction  as  at  all  events  bluntly  honest  and  out- 
spoken; but  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  was  deceitful  and 


M 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


m 


I  i 

J '  " 
I    ■! 

w 


m 


treacherous.  He  was  outspoken  in  his  abuse  of  those  with 
whom  he  quarrelled,  and  in  his  style  of  anecdote  and 
jocular  conversation ;  but  in  no  other  sense.  The  Duke  of 
Wellington,  whom  he  hated,  told  Mr.  Greville  that  he 
once  asked  George  IV.  why  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  was 
so  unpopular,  and  the  King  replied,  *'  Because  there  never 
was  a  father  well  with  his  son,  or  husband  with  his  wife, 
or  lover  with  his  mistress,  or  friend  with  his  friend,  that 
he  did  not  try  to  make  mischief  between  them. "  The  first 
thing  he  did  on  his  accession  to  the  throne  of  Hanover 
was  to  abrogate  the  constitution  which  had  been  agreed 
to  by  the  estates  of  the  kingdom,  and  sanctioned  by  the 
late  King,  William  IV.  "Radicalism,"  said  the  King, 
writing  to  an  English  nobleman,  "  has  been  here  all  the 
order  of  the  day,  and  all  the  lower  class  appointed  to  office 
were  more  or  less  imbued  with  these  laudable  principles. 
.  .  .  But  I  have  cut  the  wings  of  this  democracy." 
He  went,  indeed,  pretty  vigorously  to  work,  for  he  dis- 
missed from  their  offices  seven  of  the  most  distinguished 
professors  of  the  University  of  Gottingen,  because  they 
signed  a  protest  against  his  arbitrary  abrogation  of  the 
constitution.  Among  the  men  thus  pushed  from  their 
stools  were  Gervinus,  the  celebrated  historian  and  Shak- 
spearian  critic,  at  that  time  professor  of  history  and  liter- 
ature; Ewald,  the  Orientalist  and  theologian;  Jacob 
Grimm,  and  Frederick  Dahlmann,  professor  of  political 
science.  Gervinus,  Grimm,  and  Dahlmann  were  not 
merely  deprived  of  their  offices,  but  were  actually  sent 
into  exile.  The  exiles  were  accompanied  across  the  fron- 
tier by  an  immense  concourse  of  students,  who  gave  them 
a  triumphant  Geleii  in  true  student  fashion,  and  converted 
what  was  meant  for  degradation  and  punishment  into  a 
procession  of  honor.  The  offence  against  all  rational 
principles  of  civil  government  in  these  arbitrary  proceed- 
ings on  the  part  of  the  new  King  was  the  more  flagrant 
because  it  could  not  even  be  pretended  that  the  professors 
were  interfering  with  political  matters  outside  their  prov- 


t  ! 


Tbe  King  is  Dead!  Long  Live  the  Queen t         15 

ince,  or  that  they  were  issuing  manifestoes  calculated  to 
disturb  the  public  peace.  The  University  of  Gottingen  at 
that  time  sent  a  representative  to  the  estates  of  the  king- 
dom, and  the  protest  to  which  the  seven  professors  attached 
their  names  was  addressed  to  the  academical  senate,  and 
simply  declared  that  they  would  take  no  part  in  the  ensuing 
election,  because  of  the  suspension  of  the  constitution.  All 
this  led  to  somewhat  serious  disturbances  in  Hanover,  which 
it  needed  the  employment  of  military  force  to  suppress. 

It  was  felt  in  England  that  the  mere  departure  of  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland  from  this  country  would  have  made 
the  severance  of  the  connection  with  Hanover  desirable, 
even  if  it  had  not  been  in  other  ways  an  advantage  to  us. 
Later  times  have  shown  how  much  we  have  gained  by  the 
separation.  It  would  have  been  exceedingly  inconven- 
ient, to  say  the  least,  if  the  crown  worn  by  a  sovereign  of 
England  had  been  hazarded  in  the  war  between  Austria 
and  Prussia  in  1866.  Our  reigning  family  must  have 
seemed  to  suffer  in  dignity  if  that  crown  had  been  roughly 
knocked  off  the  head  of  its  wearer,  who  happened  to  be  an 
English  sovereign ;  and  it  would  have  been  absurd  to  ex- 
pect that  the  English  people  could  engage  in  a  quarrel 
with  which  their  interests  and  honor  had  absolutely  noth- 
ing to  do  for  the  sake  of  a  mere  family  possession  of  their 
ruling  house.  Looking  back  from  this  distance  of  time,  and 
across  a  change  of  political  and  social  manners  far  greater 
than  the  distance  of  time  might  seem  to  explain,  it  appears 
difficult  to  understand  the  passionate  emotions  which  the 
accession  of  the  young  Queen  seems  to  have  excited  on  all 
sides.  Some  influential  and  prominent  politicians  talked 
and  wrote  as  if  there  were  really  a  possibility  of  the  To- 
ries attempting  a  revolution  in  favor  of  the  Hanoverian 
branch  of  the  royal  family ;  and  if  some  such  crisis  had 
again  come  rotund  as  that  which  tried  the  nation  when 
Queen  Anne  died.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were  heard 
loud  and  shrill  cries  that  the  Queen  was  destined  to  be  con- 
ducted by  her  constitutional  advisers  into  a  precipitate  path- 


Hl 


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A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


! 


way,  leading  sheer  down  into  popery  and  anarchy.  The 
Times  insisted  that "  the  anticipations  of  certain  Irish 
Roman  Catholics  respecting  the  success  of  their  warfare 
against  Church  and  State  under  the  auspices  of  these  not 
untried  ministers,  into  whose  hands  the  all  but  infant  Queen 
has  been  compelled  by  her  unhappy  condition  to  deliver 
herself  and  her  indignant  people,  are  to  be  taken  for 
nothing,  and  as  nothing  but  the  chimeras  of  a  band  of 
visionary  traitors."  The  Times  even  thought  it  necessary 
to  point  out  that  for  her  Majesty  to  turn  papist,  to  marry 
a  papist,  "  or  in  any  manner  follow  the  footsteps  of  the 
Coburg  family,  whom  these  incendiaries  describe  as 
papists,"  would  involve  an  " immediate  forfeiture  of  the 
British  crown. "  On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  Radical 
and  more  especially  Irish  papers  talked  in  the  plainest 
terms  of  Tory  plots  to  depose,  or  even  to  assassinate,  the 
Queen,  and  put  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  in  her  place. 
O'Connell,  the  great  Irish  agitator,  declared  in  a  public 
speech  that  if  it  were  necessary  he  could  get  "  five  hun- 
dred thousand  brave  Irishmen  to  defend  the  life,  the  honor 
and  the  person  of  the  beloved  young  lady  by  whom  Eng- 
land's throne  is  now  filled."  Mr.  Henry  Grattan,  the  son 
of  the  famous  orator,  and  like  his  father  a  Protestant,  de- 
clared, at  a  meeting  in  Dublin,  that  "  if  her  Majesty  were 
once  fairly  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Tories,  I  would  not 
give  an  orange-peel  for  her  life. "  He  even  went  on  to 
put  his  rhetorical  declaration  into  a  more  distinct  form : 
"  If  some  of  the  low  miscreants  of  the  party  got  round  her 
Majesty,  and  had  the  mixing  of  the  royal  bowl  at  night,  I 
fear  she  would  have  a  long  sleep. "  This  language  seems 
almost  too  absurd  for  sober  record,  and  yet  was  hardly 
more  absurd  than  many  things  said  on  what  may  be  called 
the  other  side.  A  Mr.  Bradshaw,  Tory  member  for  Can- 
terbury, declared  at  a  public  meeting  in  that  ancient  city 
that  the  sheet-anchor  of  the  Liberal  Ministry  was  the  body 
of  "  Irish  papists  and  rapparees  whom  the  priests  return 
to  the  House  of  Commons. "    **  These  are  the  men  who 


The  King  is  Dead!  Long  Live  the  Queen t         17 

represent  the  bigoted  savages,  hardly  more  civilized  than 
the  natives  of  New  Zealand,  but  animated  with  a  fierce, 
undying  hatred  of  Bngland.  Yet  on  these  men  are  be- 
stowed the  countenance  and  support  of  the  Queen  of  Prot- 
estant England.  For,  alas!  her  Majesty  is  Queen  only 
of  a  faction,  and  is  as  much  of  a  partisan  as  the  Lord 
Chancellor  himself,"  At  a  Conservative  dinner  in  Lanca- 
shire, a  speaker  denounced  the  Queen  and  her  ministers 
on  the  same  ground  so  vehemently  that  the  Commander- 
in-chief  addressed  a  remonstrance  to  some  military  officers 
who  were  among  the  guests  at  this  excited  banquet,  point- 
ing out  to  them  the  serious  responsibility  they  incurred  by 
remaining  in  any  assembly  when  such  language  was 
uttered  and  such  sentiments  were  expressed. 

No  one,  of  course,  would  take  impassioned  and  inflated 
harangues  of  this  kind  on  either  side  as  a  representation 
of  the  general  feeling.  Sober  persons  all  over  the  country 
must  have  known  perfectly  well  that  there  was  not  the 
slightest  fear  that  the  young  Queen  would  turn  a  Roman 
Catholic,  or  that  her  minister  intended  to  deliver  the  coun- 
try up  as  a  prey  to  Rome.  Sober  persons  everywhere,  too, 
must  have  known  equally  well  that  there  was  no  longer  the 
slightest  cause  to  feel  an  alarm  about  a  Tory  plot  to  hand 
over  the  throne  of  England  to  the  detested  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland. We  only  desire,  in  quoting  such  outrageous 
declarations,  to  make  more  clear  the  condition  of  the  pub- 
lic mind,  and  to  show  what  the  state  of  the  political  world 
must  have  been  when  such  extravagance  and  such  delu- 
sions were  possible.  We  have  done  this  partly  to  show 
what  were  the  trials  and  difficulties  under  which  her 
Majesty  came  to  the  throne,  and  partly  for  the  mere  pur- 
pose of  illustrating  the  condition  of  the  country  and  of 
political  education.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  all  over 
the  country  passion  and  ignorance  were  at  work  to  make 
the  task  of  constitutional  government  peculiarly  difficult. 
A  vast  number  of  the  followers  of  the  Tories  in  country 
places  really  believed  that  the  Liberals  were  determined 
Vol.  I.— a 


|8 


A  History  of  Our  Oivn  Times, 


• 


.t  1 


Uf! 


to  hurry  the  sovereign  into  some  policy  tending  to  the 
degradation  of  the  monarchy.  If  any  cool  and  enlightened 
reasoner  were  to  argue  with  them  on  this  point,  and  en- 
deavor to  convince  them  of  the  folly  of  ascribing  such  pur- 
poses to  a  number  of  English  statesmen  whose  interests, 
position,  and  honor  were  absolutely  bound  up  with  the 
success  and  the  glory  of  the  State,  the  indignant  and  un- 
reasoning Tories  would  be  able  to  cite  the  very  words  of  so 
great  and  so  sober-minded  a  statesman  ns  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  who,  in  his  famous  speech  to  the  electors  of  Tam- 
worth,  promised  to  rescue  the  constitution  from  being 
made  the  "victim  of  false  friends,"  and  the  country  from 
being  "  trampled  under  the  hoof  of  a  ruthless  democracy. " 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  a  sensible  person  were  to  try  to 
persuade  hot-headed  people  on  the  opposite  side  that  it 
was  absurd  to  suppose  the  Tories  really  meant  any  harm 
to  the  freedom  and  the  peace  of  the  country  and  the  secu- 
rity of  the  succession,  he  might  be  invited,  with  significant 
expression,  to  read  the  manifesto  issued  by  Lord  Durham 
to  the  electors  of  Sunderland,  in  which  that  eminent  states- 
man declared  that  "  in  all  circumstances,  at  all  hazards,  be 
the  personal  consequences  what  they  may,"  he  would  ever 
be  found  ready  when  called  upon  to  defend  the  principles 
on  which  the  constitution  of  the  country  was  then  settled. 
We  know  now  very  well  that  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  Lord 
Durham  were  using  the  language  of  innocent  metap.'  '"**. 
Sir  Robert  Peel  did  not  really  fear  much  the  hoof  of  the 
ruthless  democracy;  Lord  Durham  did  not  actually  expect 
to  be  called  upon  at  any  terrible  risk  to  himself  to  fight 
the  battle  of  freedom  on  English  soil.  But  when  those 
whose  minds  had  been  bewildered  and  whose  passions  had 
been  inflamed  by  the  language  of  the  Times  on  the  one 
side,  and  that  of  O'Connell  on  the  other,  came  to  read  the 
calmer  and  yet  sufficiently  impassioned  words  of  responsi- 
ble statesmen  like  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  Lord  Durham,  they 
might  be  excused  if  they  found  rather  a  confirmation  than 
a  refutation  of  their  arguments  and  their  fears. 


Tbe  King  is  Dead/  Long  Live  the  Queen f 


«9 


The  truth  is  that  the  country  was  in  a  very  excited  con- 
dition, and  that  it  is  easy  to  imagine  a  succession  of  events 
which  might  in  a  moment  have  thrown  it  into  utter  con- 
£usion.  At  home  and  abroad  things  were  looking  ominous 
for  the  new  reign.  To  begin  \/ith,  the  last  two  reigns 
had,  on  the  whole,  done  much  tc  loosen,  not  only  the  per- 
sonal feeling  of  allegiance,  but  even  the  general  confidence 
in  the  virtue  of  monarchical  rule.  The  old  plan  of  per- 
sonal government  had  become  an  anomaly,  and  the  system 
of  a  genuine  constitutional  government,  such  as  we  know, 
had  not  yet  been  tried.  The  very  manner  in  which  the 
Reform  Bill  had  been  carried,  the  political  stratagem 
which  had  been  resorted  to  when  further  resistance  seemed 
dangerous,  was  not  likely  to  exalt  in  popular  estimate  the 
value  of  what  was  then  gracefully  called  constitutional 
government.  Only  a  short  time  before,  the  tcountry  had 
seen  Catholic  emancipation  conceded,  not  from*  a  sense  of 
justice  on  the  part  of  ministers,  but  avowedly  because 
further  resistance  must  lead  to  civil  disturbance.  There 
was  not  much  in  all  this  to  impress  an  intelligent  and  in- 
dependent people  with  a  sense  of  the  great  wisdom  of  the 
rulers  of  the  country,  or  of  the  indispensable  advantages 
of  the  system  which  they  represented.  Social  discontent 
prevailed  almost  everywhere.  Economic  laws  were  hardly 
understood  by  the  country  in  general.  Class  interests 
were  fiercely  arrayed  against  each  other.  The  cause  of 
each  man's  class  filled  him  with  a  positive  fanaticism. 
He  was  not  a  mere  selfish  and  grasping  partisan,  but  he 
sincerely  believed  that  each  other  class  was  arrayed  against 
his,  and  that  the  natural  duty  of  self-defence  and  self- 
preservation  compelled  him  to  stand  firmly  by  his  own. 


* 


CHAPTER  II. 


STATESMEN    AND    PARTIES. 


m. 


S-  .  I 


Lord  Melbourne  was  the  First  Minister  of  the  Crown 
when  the  Queen  succeeded  to  the  throne.  He  was  a  man 
who  then  and  always  after  made  himself  particularly  dear 
to  the  Queen,  and  for  whom  she  had  the  strongest  regard. 
He  was  of  kindly,  somewhat  indolent  nature;  fair  and 
even  generous  toward  his  political  opponents ;  of  the  most 
genial  dis^josition  toward  his  friends.  He  was  emphati- 
cally not  a  strong  man.  He  was  not  a  man  to  make  good 
grow  where  it  was  not  already  grown,  to  adopt  the  ex- 
pression of  a  great  author.  Long  before  that  time  his 
eccentric  wife,  Lady  Caroline  Lamb,  had  excused  herself 
for  some  of  her  follies  and  frailties  by  pleading  that  her 
'ausband  was  not  a  man  to  watch  over  any  one's  morals. 
He  was  a  kindly  counsellor  to  a  young  Queen ;  and,  hap- 
pily for  herself,  the  young  Queen  in  this  case  had  strong, 
clear  sense  enough  of  her  own  not  to  be  absolutely  depend- 
ent on  any  counsel.  Lord  Melbourne  was  not  a  statesman. 
His  best  qualities,  personal  kindness  and  good-nature 
apart,  were  purely  negative.  He  was  unfortunately  not 
content  even  with  the  reputation  for  a  sort  of  indolent 
good-nature  which  he  might  have  well  deserved :  he  strove 
to  make  himself  appear  hopelessly  idle,  trivial,  and  care- 
less. When  he  really  was  serious  and  earnest,  he  seemed 
to  make  it  his  business  to  look  like  one  in  whom  no  human 
affair?  could  call  up  a  gleam  of  interest.  He  became  the 
fanfarcn.  of  levities  which  he  never  had.  We  have  amus- 
ing pictures  of  him  as  he  occupied  himself  in  blowing  a 
feather  or  nursing  a  sofa-cushion  while  receiving  an  impor- 
tant and  perhaps  highly  sensitive  deputation  from  this  or 


i 


LORD    MELBOURNE 
From  the  Painting  by  Sir  Thomas  Liwrtnce,  P.R.A. 


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statesmen  and  Parties, 


2% 


that  commercial "  interest. "  Those  who  knew  him  insisted 
that  he  really  was  listening  with  all  his  might  and  main ; 
that  he  had  sat  up  the  whole  night  before  studying  the  ques- 
tion which  he  seemed  to  think  so  unworthy  of  any  attention ; 
and  that,  so  far  from  being,  like  Horace,  wholly  absorbed 
in  his  trifles,  he  was  at  very  great  pains  to  keep  up  the 
appearance  of  a  trifler.  A  brilliant  critic  has  made  a 
lively  and  amusing  attack  on  this  alleged  peculiarity.  "  If 
the  truth  must  be  told,"  says  Sydney  Smith,  "  our  viscount 
is  somewhat  of  an  impostor.  Everything  about  him  seems 
to  betoken  careless  desolation ;  any  one  would  suppose 
from  his  manner  that  he  was  playing  at  chuck-farthing 
with  human  happiness ;  that  he  was  always  on  the  wheel  of 
pastime ;  that  he  would  giggle  away  the  Great  Charter,  and 
decide  by  the  method  of  teetotum  whether  my  lords  the 
bishops  should  or  should  not  retain  their  seats  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  All  this  is  but  the  mere  vanity  of  sur- 
prising, and  making  us  believe  that  he  can  play  with  king- 
doms as  other  men  can  with  ninepins.  ...  I  am  sorry 
to  hurt  any  man's  feelings,  and  to  brush  away  the  magnifi- 
cent fabric  of  levity  and  gayety  he  has  reared;  but  I 
accuse  our  minister  of  honesty  and  diligence ;  I  deny  that 
he  is  careless  or  rash :  he  is  nothing  more  than  a  man  of 
good  understanding  and  ofood  principle  disguised  in  the 
eternal  and  somewhat  wearisome  affectation  of  a  political 

Such  a  masquerading  might  perhaps  have  been  excus- 
able, or  even  attractive,  in  the  case  of  a  man  of  really  brill- 
iant and  commanding  talents.  Lookers-on  are  always 
rather  apt  to  be  fascinated  by  the  spectacle  of  a  man  of 
well-recognized  strength  and  force  of  character  playing  for 
the  moment  the  part  of  an  indolent  trifler.  The  contrast 
is  charming  in  a  brilliant  Prince  Hal  or  such  a  Sardana- 
palus  as  Byron  drew.  In  our  own  time  a  coiisiderable 
amount  of  the  popularity  of  Lord  Palmerston  was  inspired 
by  the  amusing  antagonism  between  his  assumed  levity 
and  his  well-known  force  of  intellect  and  strength  of  will. 


22 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


\\\ 
'  'I 


;frw; 


But  in  Lord  Melbourne's  case  the  affectation  had  no  such 
excuse  or  happy  effect.  He  was  not  by  any  means  a 
Palmerston.  He  was  only  fitted  to  rule  in  the  quietest 
times.  He  was  a  poor  speaker,  utterly  unable  to  encoun- 
ter the  keen,  penetrating  criticisms  of  Lyndhurst  or  the 
vehement  and  remorseless  invectives  of  Brougham.  De- 
bates were  then  conducted  with  a  bitterness  of  personality 
unknown,  or  at  all  events  very  rarely  known,  in  our  days. 
Even  in  the  House  of  Lords  language  was  often  inter- 
changed of  the  most  virulent  hostility.  The  rushing  im- 
petuosity and  fury  of  Brougham's  style  had  done  much 
then  to  inflame  the  atmosphere  which  in  our  days  is  usu- 
ally so  cool  and  moderate. 

It  probably  added  to  the  warmth  of  the  attacks  on  the 
ministry  of  Lord  Melbourne  that  the  Prime-minister  was 
supposed  to  be  an  especial  favorite  with  the  young  Queen. 
When  Victoria  came  to  the  throne  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
gave  frank  expression  to  his  feelings  as  to  the  future  of 
his  party.  He  was  of  opinion  that  the  Tories  would  never 
have  any  chance  with  a  young  woman  for  sovereign,  "  I 
have  no  small-talk,"  he  said,  "and  Peel  has  no  manners." 
It  had  probably  not  occurred  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  to 
think  that  a  woman  could  be  capable  of  ps  sound  a  con- 
stitutional policy,  and  could  show  as  little  regard  for  per- 
sonal predilections  in  the  business  of  government,  as  any 
man.  All  this,  however,  only  tended  to  embitter  the 
feeling  against  the  Whig  government  Lord  Melbourne's 
constant  attendance  on  the  young  Queen  was  regarded 
with  keen  jealousy  and  dissatisfaction.  According  to  some 
critics,  the  Prime-minister  was  endeavoring  to  inspire  her 
with  all  his  own  gay  heedlessness  of  character  and  tem- 
perament. According  to  others,  Lord  Melbourne's  pur- 
pose was  to  make  himself  agreeable  and  indispensable  to 
the  Queen ;  to  surround  her  with  his  friends,  relations,  and 
creatures,  and  thus  get  a  lifelong  hold  of  power  in  Eng- 
land, in  defiance  of  political  changes  and  parties.  It  is 
curious  now  to  look  back  on  much  that  was  said  in  the 


Statesmen  and  Parties. 


^3 


political  and  personal  heats  and  bitternesses  of  the  time.  If 
Lord  Melbourne  had  been  a  French  mayor  of  the  palace, 
whose  real  object  was  to  make  himself  virtual  ruler  of  the 
State,  and  to  hold  the  sovereign  as  a  puppet  in  his  hands, 
there  could  not  have  been  greater  anger,  fear,  and  jeal- 
ousy. Since  that  time  we  have  all  learned  on  the  very 
best  authox  ity  that  Lord  Melbourne  actually  was  himself 
the  person  to  advise  the  Queen  to  show  some  confidence 
in  the  Tories — to  "  hold  out  the  olive-branch  a  little  to 
them,"  as  he  expressed  it.  He  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  greedy  of  power,  or  to  have  u  2d  any  unfair  means 
of  getting  or  keeping  it.  The  character  of  the  young 
sovereign  seems  to  have  impressed  him  deeply.  His  real 
or  affected  levity  gave  way  to  a  genuine  and  lasting  desire 
to  make  her  life  as  happy,  and  her  reign  as  successful,  as 
he  could.  The  Queen  always  felt  the  warmest  affection 
and  gratitude  for  him,  and  showed  it  long  after  the  public 
had  given  up  the  suspicion  that  she  could  be  a  puppet  in 
the  hands  of  a  minister. 

Still,  it  is  certain  that  the  Queen's  Prime-minister  was 
by  no  means  a  popular  man  at  the  time  of  her  accession. 
Even  observers  who  had  no  political  or  personal  interest 
whatever  in  the  conditions  of  cabinets  were  displeased  to 
see  the  opening  of  the  new  roign  so  much,  to  all  appear- 
ance, under  the  influence  of  one  who  either  was  or  tried  to 
be  a  mere  lounger.  The  deputations  went  away  offended 
and  disgusted  when  Lord  Melbourne  played  with  feathers  or 
dandled  sofa-cushions  in  their  presence.  The  almost  fierce 
energy  and  strenuousness  of  a  man  like  Brougham  showed 
in  overwhelming  contrast  to  the  happy-go-lucky  airs  and 
graces  of  the  Premier.  It  is  likely  that  there  was  quite 
as  much  of  affectation  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other;  but 
the  affectation  of  a  devouring  zeal  for  the  public  service  told 
at  leajst  far  better  than  the  other  in  the  heat  and  stress  of 
debate.  When  the  iiew  reign  began,  the  ministry  had 
two  enemies  or  critics  in  the  House  of  Lords  of  the  most 
formidable  character.     Either  alone  would  have  been  a 


2A 


A  History  of  Our  Oim  Times. 


f|k  I 


trouble  to  a  minister  of  far  stronger  mould  than  Lord 
Melbourne ;  but  circumstances  threw  them  both,  for  the 
moment,  into  a  chance  alliance  against  him. 

One  of  these  was  Lord  Brougham.  No  stronger  and 
stranger  a  figure  than  his  is  described  in  the  ciodern  history 
of  England.  He  was  gifted  with  the  most  varied  and 
striking  talents,  and  with  a  capacity  for  labor  which  some- 
times seemed  almost  superhuman.  Not  merely  had  he  the 
capacity  for  labor,  but  he  appeared  to  have  a  positive 
passion  for  work.  His  restless  energy  seemed  as  if  it 
must  stretch  itself  out  on  every  side  seeking  new  fields  of 
conquest.  The  study  that  was  enough  to  occupy  the  whole 
time  and  wear  out  the  frame  of  other  men  was  only  rec- 
reation to  him.  He  might  have  been  described  as  one 
possessed  by  a  very  demon  of  work.  His  physical  strength 
never  gave  way.  His  high  spirits  never  deserted  him. 
His  self-confidence  was  boundless.  He  thought  he  knew 
everything,  and  could  do  everything  better  than  any  other 
man.  He  delighted  in  giving  evidence  that  he  understood 
the  business  of  the  specialist  better  than  the  specialist  him- 
self. His  vanity  was  overweening,  and  made  him  ridicu- 
lous almost  as  often  and  as  much  as  his  genius  made  him 
admired.  The  comic  literature  of  more  than  a  generation 
had  no  subject  more  fruitful  than  the  vanity  and  restless- 
ness of  Lord  Brougham.  He  was  beyond  doubt  a  gjreat 
Parliamentary  orator.  His  style  was  too  diffuse  and 
sometimes  too  uncouth  to  suit  a  day  like  our  own,  when 
form  counts  for  more  than  substance,  when  passion  seems 
out  of  place  in  debate,  and  not  to  exaggerate  is  far  more 
the  object  than  to  try  to  be  great.  Brougham's  action  was 
wild,  and  sometimes  even  furious ;  his  gestures  were  sin- 
gularly ungraceful ;  his  manners  were  grotesque ;  but  of  his 
power  over  his  hearers  there  could  be  no  doubt.  That 
power  remained  with  him  until  a  far  later  date ;  and  long 
after  the  years  when  men  usually  continue  to  take  part  in 
political  debate.  Lord  Brougham  could  be  impassioned, 
impressive,  and  even  overwhelming.     He  was  not  an  ora- 


•N 


statesmen  and  Parties. 


35 


tor  of  the  highest  class :  his  speeches  have  not  stood  the 
test  of  time.  Apart  from  the  circumstances  of  the  hour 
and  the  personal  power  of  the  speaker,  they  could  hardly 
arouse  any  great  delight,  or  even  interest ;  for  they  are  by 
no  means  models  of  English  style,  and  they  have  little  of 
that  profound  philosophical  interest,  that  pregnancy  of 
thought  and  meaning,  and  that  splendor  of  eloquence, 
which  make  the  speeches  of  Burke  always  classic,  and  even 
in  a  certain  sense  always  popular  among  us.  In  truth,  no 
man  could  have  done  with  abiding  success  all  the  things 
which  Brougham  did  successfully  for  the  hour.  On  law, 
on  politics,  on  literature,  on  languages,  on  science,  on  art, 
on  industrial  and  commercial  enterprise,  he  professed  to 
pronounce  with  the  authority  of  a  teacher.  "  If  Brougham 
knew  a  little  of  law,"  said  O'Connell,  when  the  former 
became  Lord  Chancellor,  "  he  would  know  a  little  of  every- 
thing." The  anecdote  is  told  in  another  way  too,  which 
perhaps  makes  it  even  more  piquant.  "The  new  Lord 
Chancellor  knows  a  little  of  everything  in  the  world — even 
of  law." 

Brougham's  was  an  excitable  and  self-asserting  nature. 
He  had  during  many  years  shown  himself  an  embodied 
influence,  a  living,  speaking  force  in  the  promotion  of  great 
political  and  social  reforms.  If  his  talents  were  great,  if 
his  personal  vanity  was  immense,  let  it  be  said  that  his 
services  to  the  cause  of  human  freedom  and  education 
were  simply  inestimable.  As  an  opponent  of  slavery  in 
the  colonies,  as  an  advocate  of  political  reform  at  home, 
of  law  reform,  of  popular  education,  of  religious  equality, 
he  had  worked  with  indomitable  zeal,  with  resistless  pas- 
sion, and  with  splendid  success.  But  his  career  passed 
through  two  remarkable  changeo  which,  to  a  great  extent, 
interfered  with  the  full  efticacy  of  his  extraordinary  pow- 
ers. The  first  was  when  from  popular  tribune  and 
reformer  he  became  Lord  Chancellor  in  1830;  the  second 
v;as  when  he  was  left  out  of  office  on  the  reconstruction  of 
the  Whig  Ministry  in  April,  1835,  ^^^  ^^  passed  for  the 


1 


(i 


I 


i! 


:    - 


26 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


remainder  of  his  life  into  the  position  of  an  independent 
or  unattached  critic  of  the  measures  and  policy  of  other 
men.  It  has  never  been  clearly  known  why  the  Whigs 
so  suddenly  threw  over  Brougham.  The  common  belief 
is  that  his  eccentricities  and  his  almost  savage  temper 
made  him  intolerable  in  a  cabinet.  It  has  been  darkly 
hinted  that  for  a  while  his  intellect  was  actually  under  a 
cloud,  as  people  said  that  of  Chatham  was  during  a  momen- 
tous season. 

Lord  Brougham  was  not  a  man  likely  to  forget  or  for- 
give the  wrong  which  he  must  have  believed  that  he  had 
sustained  at  the  hands  of  the  Whigs.  He  became  the 
fiercest  and  most  formidable  of  Lord  Melbourne's  hostile 
critics. 

The  other  opponent  who  has  been  spoken  of  was  Lord 
Lyndhurst.  Lord  Lyndhurst  resembled  Lord  Brougham 
in  the  length  of  his  career  and  in  capacity  for  work,  if  in 
nothing  else.  Lyndhurst,  who  was  bom  in  Boston  the 
year  before  the  tea-ships  were  boarded  in  that  harbor  and 
their  cargoes  flung  into  the  water,  has  been  heard  address- 
ing the  House  of  Lords  in  all  vigor  and  fluency  by  men 
who  are  yet  far  from  middle  age.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
effective  Parliamentary  debaters  of  a  time  which  has 
known  such  men  as  Peel  and  Palmerston,  Gladstone  and 
Disraeli,  Bright  and  Cobden.  His  style  was  singularly 
and  even  severely  clear,  direct,  and  pure ;  his  manner  was 
easy  and  graceful ;  his  voice  remarkably  sweet  and  strong. 
Nothing  could  have  been  in  greater  contrast  than  his  clear, 
correct,  nervous  argument,  and  the  impassioned  invectives 
and  overwhelming  strength  of  Brougham.  Lyndhurst 
had,  as  has  been  said,  an  immense  capacity  for  work,  when 
the  work  had  to  be  done ;  but  his  natural  tendency  was  as 
distinctly  toward  indolence  as  Brougham's  was  toward 
unresting  activity.  Nor  were  Lyndhurst 's  political  con- 
victions ever  very  clear.  By  the  habitude  of  associating 
with  the  Tories,  and  receiving  office  from  them,  and  speak- 
ing for  them,  and  attacking  their  enemies  with  argument 


statesmen  and  Parties. 


yj 


and  sarcasm,  Lyndhurst  finally  settled  down  into  all  the 
ways  of  Toryism.  But  nothing  in  his  varied  history 
showed  that  he  had  any  particular  preference  that  way; 
and  there  were  many  passages  in  his  career  when  it  would 
seem  as  if  a  turn  of  chance  decided  what  path  of  political 
life  he  was  to  follow.  As  a  keen  debater  he  was,  perhaps, 
hardly  ever  excelled  in  Parliament ;  but  he  had  neither  the 
passion  nor  the  genius  of  the  orator ;  and  his  capacity  was 
narrow  indeed  in  its  range  when  compaied  with  the  aston- 
ishing versatility  and  omnivorous  mental  activity  of 
Broug^  m.  As  a  speaker  he  was  always  equal.  He 
seem  d  to  know  no  varying  moods  or  fits  of  mentp '  ssi- 
tude.  Whenever  he  spoke,  he  reached  at  once  tixc  same 
high  level  as  a  debater.  The  very  fact  may  in  itself,  per- 
haps, be  taken  as  conclusive  evidence  that  he  was  not  an 
orator.  The  higher  qualities  of  the  orator  are  no  more  to 
be  summoned  at  will  than  those  of  the  poet. 

These  two  men  were,  without  any  comparison,  the  two 
leading  debaters  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Lord  Melbourne 
had  not  at  that  time  in  the  Upper  House  a  single  man  of 
first-class  or  even  of  second-class  debating  power  on  the 
bench  of  the  ministry.  An  able  writer  has  well  remarked 
that  the  position  of  the  ministry  in  the  House  of  Lords 
might  be  compared  to  that  of  a  water-logged  wreck  into 
which  enemies  from  all  quarters  are  pouring  their  broad- 
sides. 

The  accession  of  the  Queen  made  it  necessary  that  i. 
new  Parliament  should  be  summoned.  The  struggle  be- 
tween parties  among  the  constituencies  was  very  animated, 
and  was  carried  on  in  some  instances  with  a  recourse  to 
manoeuvre  and  stratagem  such  as  in  our  time  would  hardly 
be  possible.  The  result  was  not  a  very  marked  alteration 
in  the  condition  of  parties ;  but,  on  the  whole,  the  advan- 
tage remained  with  the  Tories.  Somewhere  about  this 
time,  it  may  be  remarked,  the  use  of  the  word  "  Conserv- 
ative," to  describe  the  latter  political  party,  first  came  into 
fashion.     Mr.   Wilson  Croker  is  credited  with  the  honor 


i'ii' 


38 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


i 


■I 


III 
11 


lil 


i 


of  having  first  employed  the  word  in  that  sense.  In  an 
article  in  the  Quarterly  Review  some  years  before,  he  spoke 
of  being  decidedly  and  conscientiously  attached  "  to  what 
is  called  the  Tory,  but  which  might  with  more  propriety 
be  called  the  Conservative,  party."  During  the  elections 
for  ihe  new  Parliament,  Lord  John  Russell,  speaking  at  a 
public  dinner  at  Stroud,  made  allusion  to  the  new  name 
which  his  opponents  were  beginning  to  affect  for  their 
party.  "  If  that,"  he  said,  "  is  the  name  that  pleases  them, 
if  they  say  that  the  old  distinction  of  Whig  and  Tory  should 
no  longer  be  kept  up,  I  am  ready,  in  opposition  to  their 
name  of  Conservative,  to  take  the  name  of  Reformer,  and 
to  stand  by  that  opposition. " 

The  Tories,  or  Conservatives  then,  had  a  slight  gain  as 
the  result  of  the  appeal  to  the  country.  The  new  Parlia- 
ment, on  its  assembling,  seems  to  have  gathered  in  the 
Commons  an  unusually  large  number  of  gifted  and  prom- 
ising men.  There  was  something,  too,  of  a  literary  stamp 
about  it,  a  fact  not  much  to  be  observed  in  Parliaments  of 
a  date  nearer  to  the  present  time.  Mr.  Grote,  the  histo- 
rian of  Greece,  sat  for  the  city  of  London.  The  late  Lord 
Lytton,  then  Mr.  Edward  Lytton  Bulwer,  had  a  seat — an 
advanced  Radical  at  that  day.  Mr.  Disraeli  came  then 
into  Parliament  for  the  first  time.  Charles  Buller,  full  of 
high  spirits,  brilliant  humor,  and  the  very  inspiration  of 
keen  good-sense,  seemed  on  the  sure  way  to  that  career  of 
renown  which  a  premature  death  cut  short.  Sir  William 
Molesworth  was  an  excellent  type  of  the  school  which  in 
later  days  was  called  the  Ph.losophical  Radical.  Another 
distinguished  member  of  the  same  school,  Mr.  Roebuck, 
had  lost  his  seat,  and  was  for  the  moment  an  outsider.  Mr. 
Gladstone  had  been  already  five  years  in  Parliament.  The 
late  Lord  Carlisle,  then  Lord  Morpeth,  was  looked  upon  as  a 
graceful  specimen  of  the  literary  and  artistic  young  noble- 
man, who  also  cultivates  a  little  politics  for  his  intellectual 
amusement.  Lord  John  Russell  had  but  lately  begun  his 
career  as  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons ;  Lord  Palmer- 


f 


statesmen  and  Parties, 


ston  wa8  Foreign  Secretary,  but  had  not  even  then  got 
the  credit  of  the  great  ability  which  he  possessed.  Not 
many  years  before  Mr.  Greville  spoke  of  him  as  a  man  who 
"  had  been  twenty  years  in  office,  and  had  never  distin- 
guished himself  before."  Mr.  Greville  expresses  a  mild 
surprise  at  the  high  opinion  which  persons  who  knew  Lord 
Palmerston  intimately  were  pleased  to  entertain  as  to  his 
ability  and  his  capacity  for  work.  Only  those  who  knew 
him  very  intimately  indeed  had  any  idea  of  the  capacity 
for  governing  Parliament  and  the  country  which  he  was 
soon  afterward  to  display.  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  leader  of 
the  Conservative  party.  Lord  Stanley,  the  late  Lord 
Derby,  was  still  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  had  not 
long  before  broken  definitively  with  the  Whigs  on  the 
question  of  the  Irish  ecclesiastical  establishment,  and  had 
passed  over  to  that  Conservative  party,  of  which  he  after- 
ward became  the  most  influential  leader  and  the  most 
powerful  Parliamentary  orator.  O'Connell  and  Shiel  rep- 
resented the  eloquence  of  the  Irish  national  party.  De- 
cidedly the  House  of  Commons  first  elected  during  Qieen 
Victoria's  reign  was  strong  in  eloquence  and  talert. 
Only  two  really  great  speakers  have  arisen,  in  the  forcy 
years  that  followed,  who  were  not  members  of  Parliament 
at  that  time — Mr.  Cobden  and  Mr.  Bright.  Mr.  Cobden 
had  come  forward  as  a  candidate  for  the  borough  of  Stock- 
port, but  was  not  successful,  and  did  not  obtain  a  seat  in 
Parliament  until  four  years  after.  It  was  only  by  what 
may  be  called  an  accident  that  Macaulay  and  Mr.  Roe- 
buck were  not  in  the  t'arliament  of  1837.  It  is  fair  to 
say,  therefore,  that,  except  for  Cobden  and  Bright,  the 
subsequent  forty  years  had  added  no  first-class  name  to  the 
records  of  Parliamentary  eloquence. 

The  ministry  was  not  very  strong  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Its  conditions,  indeed,  hardly  allowed  it  to  feel 
itself  strong  even  if  it  had  had  more  powerful  representa- 
tives in  either  House.  Its  adherents  were  but  loosely  held 
together.     The  more  ardent  reformers  were  disappointed 


I. 

Lti 


^       \ 


[>.  1. 


:'tl  Til 


JO  /I  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 

with  ministers ;  the  Free-trade  movement  was  rising  into 
distinct  bulk  and  proportions,  and  threatened  to  be  for- 
midably independent  of  mere  party  ties.  The  Government 
had  to  rely  a  good  deal  on  the  precarious  support  of  Mr. 
O'Connell  and  his  followers.  They  were  not  rich  in 
debating  talent  in  the  Commons  any  more  than  in  the 
Lords.  Sir  Robert  Peel,  the  leader  of  the  Opposition, 
was  by  far  the  most  powerful  man  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Added  to  his  great  qualities  as  an  administrator 
and  a  Parliamentary  debater,  he  had  the  virtue,  then  very 
rare  among  Conservative  statesmen,  of  being  a  sound  and 
clear  financier,  with  a  good  grasp  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  political  economy.  His  high  austere  char- 
acter made  him  respected  by  opponents  as  well  as  by 
friends.  He  had  not,  perhaps,  many  intimate  friends. 
His  temperament  was  cold,  or  at  least  its  heat  was  self- 
contained;  he  threw  out  no  genial  glow  to  those  around 
him.  He  was  by  nature  a  reserved  and  shy  man,  in  whose 
manners  shyness  took  the  form  of  pompousness  and  cold- 
ness. Something  might  be  said  of  him  like  that  which 
Richter  said  of  Schiller:  he  was  to  strangers  stony,  and 
like  a  precipice  from  which  it  was  their  instinct  to  spring 
back.  It  is  certain  that  he  had  warm  and  generous  feel- 
ings, but  his  very  sensitiveness  only  led  him  to  disguise 
them.  The  contrast  between  his  emotions  and  his  lack 
of  demonstrativeness  created  in  him  a  constant  artificiality 
which  often  seemed  mere  awkwardness.  It  was  in  the 
House  of  Commons  that  his  real  genius  and  character 
displayed  themselves.  The  atmosphere  of  debate  was  to 
him  what  Macaulay  says  wine  was  to  Addison,  the  influ- 
ence which  broke  the  spell  under  which  his  fine  intellect 
seemed  otherwise  to  lie  imprisoned.  Peel  was  a  perfect 
master  of  the  House  of  Commons.  He  was  as  great  an 
orator  as  any  man  could  be  who  addresses  himself  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  its  ways  and  its  purposes  alone.  He 
went  as  near,  perhaps,  to  the  rank  of  a  great  orator  as  any 
one  can  go  who  is  but  little  gifted  with  imagination. 


r   ■ 


statesmen  and  Parties. 


Jl 


Oratory  has  been  well  described  as  the  fusion  of  reason  and 
passion.  Passion  always  carries  somethinjj  of  the  imajji- 
native  along  with  it.  Sir  Robert  Peel  had  little  imagina- 
tion, and  almost  none  of  that  passion  which  in  eloquence 
sometimes  supplies  its  place.  His  style  was  clear,  strong, 
and  stately;  full  oi  various  argument  and  apt  illustration 
drawn  from  books  and  from  the  world  of  politics  and 
commerce.  He  followed  a  difficult  argument  home  to  its 
utter  conclusions ;  and  if  it  had  in  it  any  lurking  fallacy 
he  brought  out  the  weakness  into  the  clearest  light,  often 
with  a  happy  touch  of  humor  and  quiet  sarcasm.  His 
speeches  might  be  described  as  the  very  perfection  of  good- 
sense  and  high  principle  clothed  in  the  most  impressive 
language.  But  they  were  something  more  peculiar  than 
this,  for  they  were  so  constructed,  in  their  argument  and 
their  style  alike,  as  to  touch  the  very  core  of  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  House  of  Commons.  They  told  of  the  feel- 
ings and  the  inspiration  of  Parliamen  as  the  ballad-music 
of  a  country  tells  of  its  scenery  and  its  national  sentiments. 
Lord  Stanley  was  a  far  more  energetic  and  impassioned 
sper-ker  than  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  perhaps  occasionally, 
in  his  later  career,  came  now  and  then  nearer  to  the  height 
of  genuine  oratory.  But  Lord  Stanley  was  little  more 
than  a  splendid  Parliamentary  partisan,  even  when,  long 
after,  he  was  Prime-minister  of  England.  He  had  very 
little,  indeed,  of  that  class  of  information  which  the  mod- 
ern world  requires  of  its  statesmen  and  leaders.  Of 
political  economy,  of  finance,  of  the  development  and  the 
discoveries  of  modern  science,  he  knew  almost  as  little  as 
it  is  possible  for  an  able  and  energetic  man  to  know  who 
lives  in  the  throng  of  active  life  and  hears  what  people  are 
talking  of  around  him.  He  once  said  good-hum oredly  of 
himself,  that  he  was  brought  up  in  the  pre-scientific  period. 
His  scholarship  was  merely  such  training  in  the  classic 
languages  as  allowed  him  to  have  a  full  literary  apprecia- 
tion of  the  beauty  of  Greek  and  Roman  literature.  He 
had  no  real  and  deep  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  Greek 


3^ 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


'.  t 


I 


and  the  Roman  people,  nor  probably  did  he  at  all  appre- 
ciate the  great  difference  between  the  spirit  of  Roman  and 
of  Greek  civilization.  He  had,  in  fact,  what  would  have 
been  called  at  an  earlier  day  an  elegant  scholarship ;  he 
had  a  considerable  knowledge  of  the  politics  of  his  time  in 
most  European  countries,  an  energetic,  intrepid  spirit,  and 
with  him,  as  Macaulay  well  said,  the  science  of  Parlia- 
mentary debate  seemed  to  be  an  instinct.  There  was  no 
speaker  on  the  ministerial  benches  at  that  time  who  could 
for  a  moment  be  compared  with  him. 

Lord  John  Russell,  who  had  the  leadership  of  the  party 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  ^vas  really  a  much  stronger 
man  than  he  seemed  to  be.  He  had  a  character  for  daunt- 
less courage  and  confidence  among  his  friends ;  for  bound- 
less self-conceit  among  his  enemies.  Every  one  remem- 
bers Sydney  Smith's  famous  illustrations  of  Lord  John 
Russell's  unlimited  faith  in  his  own  power  of  achievement. 
Thomas  Moor."*  addressed  a  poem  to  him  at  one  time,  when 
Lord  John  Russell  thought  or  talked  of  giving  up  political 
life,  in  which  he  appeals  to  "  thy  genius,  thy  youth,  and 
thy  name,"  declares  that  the  instinct  of  the  young  states- 
man is  the  same  as  **  the  eaglet's  to  soar  with  his  eyes  on 
the  sun,"  and  implores  him  not  to  "think  for  an  instant 
thy  country  can  spare  such  a  light  from  her  darkening 
horizon  as  thou. "  Later  observers,  to  whom  Lord  John 
Russell  appeared  probably  remarkable  for  a  cold  and  formal 
style  as  a  debater,  and  for  lack  of  originating  pcver  as  a 
statesman,  may  find  it  difficult  to  reconcile  the  poet's  pic- 
ture with  their  own  impressions  of  the  reality.  But  it  is 
certain  that  at  one  time  the  reputation  of  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell was  that  of  a  rather  reckless  man  of  genius,  a  sort  of 
Whig  Shelley.  He  had,  in  truth,  much  less  genius  than  his 
friends  and  admirers  believed,  and  a  great  deal  more  of 
practical  strength  than  either  friends  or  foes  gave  him 
credit  for.  He  became,  not  indeed  an  orator,  but  a  very 
keen  debater,  who  was  especially  effective  in  a  cold,  irri- 
tating sarcasm  which  penetrated   the  weakness  of  an 


\  I 


statesmen  and  Parties. 


}3 


opponent's  argument  like  some  dissolving  acid.  In  the 
poem  from  which  we  have  quoted,  Moore  speaks  of  the 
eloquence  of  his  noble  friend  as  "  not  like  those  rills  from 
a  height,  which  sparkle  and  foam  and  in  vapor  are  o'er; 
but  a  current  that  works  out  its  way  into  light  through  the 
filtering  recesses  of  thought  and  of  lore."  Allowing  for 
the  exaggeration  of  friendship  and  poetry,  this  is  not  a  bad 
description  of  what  Lord  John  Russell's  style  became  at 
its  best.  The  thin  bright  stream  of  argument  worked  its 
way  slowly  out,  and  contrived  to  wear  a  path  for  itself 
through  obstacles  which  at  first  the  looker-on  might  have 
felt  assured  it  never  could  penetrate.  Lord  John  Russell's 
swordsmanship  was  the  swordsmanship  of  Saladin,  and 
not  that  of  stout  King  Richard.  But  it  was  very 
effective  sword-play  in  its  own  way.  Our  English 
system  of  government  by  party  makes  the  history  of 
Parliament  seem  like  that  of  a  succession  of  great 
political  duels.  Two  men  stand  constantly  confronted 
during  a  series  of  years,  one  of  whom  is  at  the  head 
of  the  Government,  while  the  other  is  at  the  head  of 
the  Opposition.  They  change  places  with  each  victory. 
The  conqueror  goes  into  office ;  the  conquered  into  oppo- 
sition. This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  either  the  merits 
or  the  probable  duration  of  the  principle  of  government 
by  party;  it  is  enough  to  say  here  that  it  undoubtedly 
gives  a  very  animated  and  varied  complexion  to  our  polit- 
ical struggles,  and  invests  them,  indeed,  with  much  of 
the  glow  and  passion  of  actual  warfare.  It  has  often 
happened  that  the  two  leading  opponents  are  men  of  intel- 
lectual and  oratorical  powers  so  fairly  balanced  that  their 
followers  may  well  dispute  among  themselves  as  to  the 
superiority  of  their  respective  chiefs,  and  that  the  public 
in  general  may  become  divided  into  two  schools,  not  merely 
political,  but  even  critical,  according  to  their  partiality 
for  one  or  the  other.  We  still  dispute  as  to  whether  Fox 
or  Pitt  was  the  greater  leader,  the  greater  orator;  it  is 
probable  that  for  a  long  time  to  come  the  same  question 
Vol.  I.— 3 


!   M 


34 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


!  ;! 


will  be  asked  by  political  students  about  Gladstone  and 
Disraeli.  For  many  years  Lord  John  Russell  and  Sir  Rob- 
ert Peel  stood  thus  opposed.  They  will  often  come  into 
contrast  and  comparison  in  these  pages.  For  the  pres- 
ent it  is  enoug^h  to  say  that  Peel  had  by  far  the  more 
original  mind,  and  that  Lord  John  Russell  never  obtained 
so  great  an  influence  over  the  House  of  Commons  as  that 
which  his  rival  long  enjoyed.  The  heat  of  political  pas- 
sion afterward  induced  a  bitter  critic  to  accuse  Peel  of  lack 
of  originality  because  he  assimilated  readily  and  turned  to 
account  the  ideas  of  other  men.  Not  merely  the  criticism, 
but  the  principle  on  which  it  was  founded,  was  altogether 
wrong.  It  ought  to  be  left  to  children  to  suppose  that 
nothing  is  original  but  that  which  we  make  up,  as  the 
childish  phrase  is,  "  out  of  our  own  heads. "  Originality 
in  politics,  as  in  every  field  of  art,  consists  in  the  use  and 
application  of  the  ideas  which  we  get  or  are  given  to  us. 
The  greatest  proof  Sir  Robert  Peel  ever  gave  of  high  and 
genuine  statesmanship  v;as  in  his  recognition  that  the 
time  had  come  to  put  into  practical  legislation  the  princi- 
ples which  Cobden  and  Villiers  and  Bright  had  been 
advocating  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Lord  John  Russell 
was  a  born  reformer.  He  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  Fox.  He 
was  cradled  in  the  principles  of  Liberalism.  He  held 
faithfully  to  his  creed ;  he  was  one  of  its  boldest  and  keen- 
est champions.  He  had  great  advantages  over  Peel,  in 
the  mere  fact  that  he  had  begun  his  education  in  a  more 
enlightened  school.  But  he  wanted  passion  quite  as  much 
as  Peel  did,  and  remained  still  farther  than  Peel  below  the 
level  of  the  genuine  orator.  Russell,  as  we  have  said,  had 
not  long  held  the  post  of  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons 
when  the  first  Parliament  of  Queen  Victoria  assembled. 
He  was  still,  in  a  manner,  on  trial ;  and  even  among  his 
friends,  perhaps  especially  among  his  friends,  there  were 
whispers  that  his  confidence  in  himself  was  greater  than 
his  capacity  for  leadership. 
After  the  chiefs  of  Ministry  and  of  Opposition,  the  most 


statesmen  and  Parties. 


35 


conspicuous  figure  in  the  House  of  Commons  was  the 
colossal  form  of  O'Connell,  the  great  Irish  agitator,  of 
whom  we  shall  hear  a  good  deal  more.  Among  the  fore- 
most orators  of  the  House  at  that  time  was  O'Connell's 
impassioned  lieutenant,  Richard  Lalor  Shell.  It  is  cu- 
rious how  little  is  now  remembered  of  Shell,  whom  so 
many  well-qualified  authorities  declared  to  be  a  genuine 
orator.  Lord  Beaconsfield,  in  one  of  his  novels,  speaks  of 
Shell's  eloquence  in  terms  of  the  highest  praise,  and  dis- 
parages Canning.  It  is  but  a  short  time  since  Mr.  Glad- 
stone selected  Shell  as  one  of  three  remarkable  illustrations 
of  great  success  as  a  speaker,  achieved  in  spite  of  serious 
defects  of  voice  and  delivery;  the  other  two  examples 
being  Dr.  Chalmers  and  Dr.  Newman.  Mr.  Gladstone 
described  Shell's  voice  as  like  nothing  but  the  sound 
produced  by  "  a  tin  kettle  battered  about  from  place  to 
place,"  knocking  first  against  one  side  and  then  against 
another.  "In  anybody  else,"  Mr.  Gladstone  went  on  to 
say,  "  I  would  not,  if  it  had  been  in  my  choice,  like  to 
have  listened  to  that  voice ;  but  in  him  I  would  not  have 
changed  it,  for  it  was  part  of  a  most  remarkable  whole, 
and  nobody  ever  felt  it  painful  while  listening  to  it.  He 
was  a  great  orator,  and  an  orator  of  much  preparation,  I 
believe,  carried  even  to  words,  with  a  very  vivid  imagi- 
nation and  an  enormous  power  of  language,  and  of  strong 
feeling.  There  was  a  peculiar  character,  a  sort  of  half- 
wildness  in  his  aspect  and  delivery ;  his  whole  figure,  and 
his  delivery,  and  his  voice  and  his  matter,  were  all  in  such 
perfect  keeping  with  one  another  that  they  formed  a  great 
Parliamentary  picture ;  and  although  it  is  now  thirty-five 
years  since  I  heard  Mr.  Sheil,  my  recollection  of  him  is 
just  as  vivid  as  if  I  had  been  listening  to  him  to-day." 
This  surely  is  a  picture  of  a  great  orator,  as  Mr.  Gladstone 
says  Sheil  was.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  understand  how  a  man, 
without  being  a  great  orator,  could  have  persuaded  two 
experts  of  such  very  different  schools  as  Mr.  Gladstone 
and  Mr.  Disraeli  that  he  deserved  such  a  name.    Yet  the 


■  ■  1 

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,    ■'* 


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^  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


after-years  have  in  a  curious  but  unmistakable  way  denied 
the  claims  of  Sheil.  Perhaps  it  is  because,  if  he  really 
was  an  orator,  he  was  that  and  nothing  more,  that  our 
practical  age,  finding  no  mark  left  by  him  on  Parliament 
or  politics,  has  declined  to  take  much  account  even  of  his 
eloquence.  His  career  faded  away  into  second-class  min- 
isterial office,  and  closed  at  last,  somewhat  prematurel)^ 
in  the  little  court  of  Florence,  where  he  was  sent  as  the 
representative  of  England.  He  is  worth  mentioning  here, 
because  he  had  the  promise  of  a  splendid  reputation ;  be- 
cause the  charm  of  his  eloquence  evidently  lingered  long 
in  the  memories  of  those  to  whom  it  was  once  familiar, 
and  because  his  is  one  of  the  most  brilliant  illustrations  of 
that  career  of  Irish  agitator,  which  begins  in  stormy  oppo- 
sition to  English  government,  and  subsides  after  awhile 
into  meek  recognition  of  its  title  and  adoption  of  its  min- 
isterial uniform.  O'Connell  we  have  passed  over  for  the 
present,  because  we  shall  hear  of  him  again ;  but  of  Sheil 
it  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  hear  any  more. 

This  was  evidently  a  remarkable  Parliament,  with 
Russell  for  the  leader  of  one  party,  and  Peel  for  the  leader 
of  another;  with  O'Connell  and  Sheil  as  independent  sup- 
porters of  the  ministry ;  with  Mr.  Gladstone  still  compar- 
atively new  to  public  life,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  to  address  the 
Commons  for  the  first  time ;  with  Palmerston  still  unrecog- 
nized, and  Stanley  lately  gone  over  to  Conservatism,  itself 
the  newest  invented  thing  in  politics;  with  Grote  and 
Bulwer,  and  Joseph  Hume  and  Charles  Buller ;  and  Ward 
and  Villiers,  Sir  Francis  Burdett  and  Smith  O'Brien,  and 
the  Radical  Alcibiades  of  Finsbury,  "  Tom"  Duncombe. 


^T't-i'Tiiigaiian^iitJuaiiTtijw 


CHAPTER  III. 


CANADA  AND  LORD  DURHAM. 


The  first  disturbance  to  the  quiet  and  good  promise  of 
the  new  reign  came  from  Canada.  The  Parliament  which 
we  have  described  met  for  the  first  time  on  November 
j^oth,  1837,  and  was  to  have  been  adjourned  to  February 
ist,  1838;  but  the  news  which  began  to  arrive  from  Can- 
ada was  so  alarming  that  the  ministry  were  compelled  to 
change  their  purpose  and  fix  the  reass'ambling  of  the 
Houses  for  January  i6th.  The  disturbances  in  Canada 
had  already  broken  out  into  open  rebellion. 

The  condition  of  Canada  was  very  peculiar.  Lower  or 
Eastern  Canada  was  inhabited  for  the  most  part  by  men 
of  French  descent,  who  still  kept  up  in  the  midst  of  an 
active  and  moving  civilization  most  of  the  principles  and 
usages  which  belonged  to  France  before  the  Revolution. 
Even  to  this  day,  after  all  the  changes,  political  and  social, 
that  have  taken  place,  the  traveller  from  Europe  sees  in 
many  of  the  towns  of  Lower  Canada  an  old-fashioned 
France,  such  as  he  had  known  otherwise  only  in  books 
that  tell  of  France  before  '89.  Nor  is  this  only  in  small 
sequestered  towns  and  villages  which  the  impulses  of 
modem  ways  have  yet  failed  to  reach.  In  busy  and  trad- 
ing Montreal,  with  its  residents  made  up  of  Englishmen, 
Scotchmen,  and  Americans,  as  well  as  the  men  of  French 
descent,  the  visitor  is  more  immediately  conscious  of  the 
presence  of  what  may  be  called  an  old-fashioned  Cathol- 
icism than  he  is  in  Paris,  or  even  indeed  in  Rome.  In 
Quebec,  a  city  which  for  picturesqueness  and  beauty  of 
situation  is  not  equalled  by  Edinburgh  or  Florence,  the 


38 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


i'^ 


curious  interest  of  the  place  is  further  increased,  the 
novelty  of  the  sensations  it  produces  in  ^he  visitor  is  made 
more  piquant,  by  the  evidence  he  meets  with  everywhere, 
through  its  quaint  and  steepy  streets  and  under  its  anti- 
quated archways,  of  the  existence  of  a  society  which  has 
hardly  in  France  survived  the  Great  Revolution.  At  the 
opening  of  Queen  Victoria's  reign,  the  undiluted  character 
of  this  French  mediaevalism  was,  of  course,  much  more 
remarkable.  It  would  doubtless  have  exhibited  itself 
quietly  enough  if  it  were  absolutely  undiluted.  Lower 
Canada  would  have  dozed  away  in  its  sleepy  picturesque- 
ness,  held  fast  to  its  ancient  ways,  and  allowed  a  bustling, 
giddy  world,  all  alive  with  commerce  and  ambition,  and 
desire  for  novelty  and  the  terribly  disturbing  thing  which 
unresting  people  called  progress,  to  rush  on  its  wild  path 
unheeded.  But  its  neighbors  and  its  newer  citizens  were 
not  disposed  to  allow  Lower  Canada  thus  to  rot  itself  in 
ease  on  the  decaying  wharves  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  St.  Charles.  In  the  large  towns  there  were  active 
traders  from  England  and  other  countries,  who  were  by 
no  means  content  to  put  up  with  Old- World  ways,  and  to 
let  the  magnificent  resources  of  the  place  run  to  waste. 
Upper  Canada,  on  the  other  hand,  was  all  new  as  to  its 
population,  and  was  full  of  the  modem  desire  for  com- 
mercial activity.  Upper  Canada  was  peopled  almost  ex- 
clusively by  ?*nhabitants  from  Great  Britain.  Scotch 
settlers,  with  all  the  energy  and  push  of  their  country ; 
men  from  the  northern  province  of  Ireland,  who  might  be 
described  as  virtually  Scotch  also,  came  there.  The 
emigrant  from  the  south  of  Ireland  went  to  the  United 
States  because  he  found  there  a  country  more  or  less  hos- 
tile to  England,  and  because  there  the  Catholic  Church 
was  understood  to  be  flourishing.  The  Ulsterman  went 
to  Canada  as  the  Scotchman  did,  because  he  saw  the  flag 
of  England  flying,  and  the  principle  of  religious  establish- 
ment which  he  admired  at  home  still  recognized.  It  is 
almost  needless  to  say  that  Englishmen  in  great  numbers 


*ff».w.i!PiBji 


Canada  and  Lord  Durham. 


S9 


were  settled  there,  whose  chief  desire  was  to  make  the 
colony  as  far  as  possible  a  copy  of  the  institu.ions  of  Eng- 
land. When  Canada  was  ceded  to  England  by  France, 
as  a  consequence  of  the  victories  of  Wolfe,  the  population 
was  nearly  all  in  the  lower  province,  and  therefore  was 
nearly  all  of  French  origin.  Since  the  cession  the  growth 
of  the  population  of  the  other  province  had  been  surpris- 
ingly rapid,  and  had  been  almost  exclusively  the  growth, 
as  we  have  seen,  of  immigration  from  Great  Britain,  one 
or  two  of  the  colonizing  states  oif  the  European  continent, 
and  the  American  Republic  itself. 

It  is  easy  to  see  on  the  very  face  of  things  some  of  the 
difficulties  which  must  arise  in  the  development  of  such  a 
system.  The  French  of  Lower  Canada  would  regard  with 
almost  morbid  jealousy  any  legislation  which  appeared 
likely  to  interfere  with  their  ancient  ways  and  to  give  any 
advantage  or  favor  to  the  populations  of  British  descent. 
The  latter  would  see  injustice  or  feebleness  in  every  meas- 
ure which  did  not  assist  them  in  developing  their  more 
energetic  ideas.  The  home  Government,  in  such  a  condi- 
tion of  things,  often  has  especial  trouble  with  those  whom 
we  may  call  its  own  people.  Their  very  loyalty  to  the 
institutions  of  the  Old  Country  impels  them  to  be  unrea- 
sonable and  exacting.  It  is  not  easy  to  make  them  un- 
derstand why  they  should  not  be  at  the  least  encouraged, 
if  not  indeed  actually  enabled,  to  carry  boldly  out  the 
Anglicizing  policy  which  they  clearly  see  is  to  be  for  the 
good  of  the  colony  in  the  end.  The  Government  has  all 
the  difficulty  that  the  mother  of  a  household  has  when, 
with  the  best  intentions  and  the  most  conscientious  resolve 
to  act  impartially,  she  is  called  upon  to  manage  her  own 
children  and  the  children  of  her  husband's  former  mar- 
riage. Every  word  she  says,  every  resolve  she  is  induced 
to  acknowledge,  is  liable  to  be  regarded  with  jealousy  and 
dissatisfaction  on  the  one  side  as  well  as  on  the  other. 
"You  are  doing  everything  to  favor  your  own  children," 
the  one  set  cry  out.     "  You  ought  to  do  something  more 


40 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


for  your  own  children,"  is  the  equally  querulous  remon- 
strance  of  the  other. 

It  would  have  been  difficult,  therefore,  for  the  home 
Government,  however  wii:e  and  far-seeing  their  policy,  to 
make  the  wheels  of  any  system  run  smoothly  at  once  in 
such  a  colony  as  Canada.  But  their  policy  certainly  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  either  wise  or  far-seeing.  The 
plan  of  government  adopted  looks  as  if  it  were  especially 
devised  to  bring  out  into  sharp  relief  all  the  antagonisms 
thfit  were  natural  to  the  existing  state  of  things.  By  an  Act 
called  the  Constitution  of  1791,  Canada  was  divided  into 
two  provinces,  the  Upper  and  the  Lower.  Each  province 
had  a  separate  system  of  government — consisting  of  a 
governor,  an  executive  council  appointed  by  the  Crown, 
and  supposed  in  some  way  to  resemble  the  Privy  Council  of 
this  country ;  a  legislative  council,  the  members  of  which 
were  appointed  by  the  Crown  for  life ;  and  a  representative 
assembly,  the  members  of  which  were  elected  for  four 
years.  At  the  same  time  the  clergy  reserves  were  estab- 
lished by  Parliament.  One-seventh  of  the  waste  lands  of 
the  colony  was  set  aside  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Prot- 
estant clergy — a  fruitful  source  of  disturbance  and  ill- 
feeling. 

When  the  two  provinces  were  divided  in  1791,  the  inten- 
tion was  that  they  should  remain  distinct  in  fact  as  well 
as  in  name.  It  was  hoped  that  Lower  Canada  would 
remain  altogether  French,  and  that  Upper  Canada  would 
be  exclusively  English.  Then  it  was  thought  that  they 
might  be  governed  on  their  separate  systems  as  securely 
and  with  as  little  trouble  as  we  now  govern  the  Mauritius 
on  one  system  and  .tlalta  on  another. 

Those  who  formed  such  an  idea  do  not  seem  to  have 
taken  any  counsel  with  geography.  The  one  fact,  that 
Upper  Canada  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  any  means  of 
communication  with  Europe  and  the  whole  Eastern  world 
except  through  Lower  Canada,  or  else  through  the  United 
States,  otight  to  have  settled  the  question  at  once.     It  was 


1'  i 


Canada  and  Lord  Durham. 


41 


in  Lower  Canada  that  the  greatest  difficulties  arose.     A 
constant  antagonism  grew  up  between  the  majority  of  the 
legislative  council,  who  were  nominees  oi  the  Crown,  and 
the  majority  of  the  representative  assembly,  who  were 
elected  by  the  population  of  the  province.     The  home 
Government  encouraged,  and  indeed  kept  up,  that  most 
odious  and  dangerous  of  all  instruments  for  the  supposed 
management  of  a  colony — a  *'  British  party"  devoted  to  the 
so-called  interests  of  the  mother-country,  and  obedient  to 
the  word  of  command  from  their  masters  and  patrons  at 
home.     The  majority  in  the  legislative  council  constantly 
thwarted  the  resolutions  of  the  vast  majority  of  the  popular 
assembly.     Disputes  arose  as  to  the  voting  of  st:pplies. 
The  Government  retained  in  their  service  officials  whom 
the  representative  assembly  had  condemned,  and  insisted 
on  the  right  to  pay  them  their  salaries  out  of  certain  funds 
of  the  colony.     The  representative  assembly  took  to  stop- 
ping the  supplies,  and  the  Government  claimed  the  right 
to  counteract  this  measure  by  appropriating  to  the  purpose 
such  public  moneys  as  happened  to  be  within  their  reach 
at  the  time.     The  colony — for  indeed  on  these  subjects  the 
population  of  Lower  Canada,  right  or  wrong,  was  so  near 
to  being  of  one  mind  that  we  may  take  the  declarations  of 
public  meetings  as  representing  the  colony — demanded 
that  the  legislative  council  should  be  made  elective,  and 
that  the  colonial  government  should  not  be  allowed  to 
dispose  of  the  moneys  of  the  colony  at  their  pleasure. 
The  House  of  Commons  and  the  Government  here  replied 
by  refusing  to  listen  to  the  proposal  to  make  the  legisla- 
tive council  an  elective  body,  and  authorizing  the  provin- 
cial government,   without  the  consent    of    the  colonial 
representation,  to  appropriate  the  money  in  the  treasury 
for  the  administration  of  justice  and  the  maintenance  of 
the  executive  system.     This  was,  in  plain  words,  to  an- 
nounce to  the  French  population,  who  made  up  the  vast 
majority,  and  whom  we  had  taught  to  believe  in  the 
representative  form   of   government,   that  their  wishes 


i 


!' 


'-  \ 


\i 


V55    ' 


'^    \ 


m 


4p  '         A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 

would  never  count  for  anything,  and  that  the  colony  was 
to  be  ruled  solely  at  the  pleasure  of  the  little  British  party 
of  officials  and  Crown  nominees.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
suppose  that  in  all  these  disputes  the  popular  majority 
were  in  the  ri^ht  and  the  officials  in  the  wrong-.  No  one 
can  doubt  that  there  was  much  bitternest:  of  feeling  arising 
oat  of  the  mere  differences  of  race.  The  French  and  the 
English  could  not  be  got  to  blend.  In  some  places,  as  it 
was  afterward  said  in  the  famous  report  of  Lord  Durham, 
the  two  sets  of  colonists  never  publicly  met  together  ex- 
cept in  the  jury-box,  and  then  only  for  the  obstruction 
of  justice.  The  British  residents  complained  bitterly  of 
being  subject  to  French  law  .ted  procedure  in  so  many  of 
their  affairs.  The  tenure  of  Ian  1  and  many  other  condi- 
tions of  the  system  were  antique  French,  and  the  French 
law  worked,  or  rather  did  not  work,  in  civil  affairs  side 
by  side  with  the  equally  impeded  British  law  in  criminal 
matters.  At  last  the  representative  assembly  refused  to 
vote  any  further  supplies  or  to  carry  on  any  further  busi- 
ness. They  formulated  their  grievances  against  the  home 
Government.  Their  complaints  were  of  arbitrary  conduct 
on  the  part  of  the  governors ;  intolerable  composition  of 
the  legislative  council,  which  they  insisted  ought  to  be 
elective;  illegal  appropriation  of  the  public  money;  and 
violent  prorogation  of  the  provincial  Parliament. 

One  of  the  leading  men  in  the  movement  which  after- 
ward became  rebellion  in  Lower  Canada  was  Mr.  Louis 
Joseph  Papineau.  This  man  had  risen  to  l:\rfh  position 
by  his  talents,  his  energy,  and  his  undoubtedly  honorable 
character.  He  had  represented  Montreal  in  the  Repre- 
sentative Assembly  of  Lower  Canada,  and  he  afterward 
became  Speaker  of  the  House.  He  made  himself  leader 
of  the  movement  to  protest  against  the  policy  of  the  gov- 
ernors, and  that  of  the  Government  at  home,  by  whom 
they  were  sustained.  He  held  a  series  of  meetings,  at 
som  ?  of  which  undo^ibtedly  rather  strong  language  was 
useci,  and  too  frequent  and  significant  appeals  were  made 


■t.  t .  : ,,  t 


"m 


Mfrrr5a,.s:; 


Canada  and  Lord  Durham. 


43 


to  the  example  held  out  to  the  population  of  Lower  Canada 
by  the  successful  revolt  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Pa- 
pineau  also  planned  the  calling  together  of  a  great  con- 
vention to  discuss  and  proclaim  the  grievances  of  the 
colonies.  Lord  Grosford,  the  governor,  began  by  dismiss- 
ing several  militia  officers  who  had  taken  part  in  some  of 
these  demonstrations ;  Mr.  Papineau  himself  was  an  officer 
of  this  force.  Then  the  governor  issued  warrants  for  the 
apprehension  of  many  members  of  the  popular  Assembly 
on  the  charge  of  high-treason.  Some  of  these  at  once  left 
the  country;  others  against  whom  warrants  were  issued 
were  arrested,  and  a  sudden  resistance  was  made  by  their 
friends  and  supporters.  Then,  in  the  manner  familiar  to 
all  who  have  read  anything  of  the  history  of  revolutionary 
movements,  the  resistajice  to  a  capture  of  prisoners  sud- 
denly transformed  itself  into  open  rebellion. 

The  rebellion  was  not,  in  a  military  sense,  a  very  great 
thing.  At  its  first  outbreak  the  military  authorities  were 
for  a  moment  surprised,  and  the  rebels  obtained  one  or 
two  trifling  advantages.  But  lie  commander-in-chief  at 
once  showed  energy  adequate  to  the  occasion,  and  used, 
as  it  was  his  duty  to  do,  a  strong  hand  in  putting  the 
.  mo"^nient  down.  The  rebels  fought  with  something  like 
desperation  in  one  or  two  instances,  and  there  was,  it  must 
be  said,  a  good  deal  of  blood  shed.  The  disturbance, 
however,  after  a  while  extended  to  the  upper  province. 
Upper  Canada  too  had  its  complaint  against  its  governors 
and  the  home  Government,  and  its  protests  against  having 
its  offices  all  disposed  of  by  a  "  family  compact ;"  but  the 
rebellious  movement  does  not  seem  to  have  taken  a  genuine 
hold  of  the  province  at  any  time.  There  was  some  dis- 
content ;  there  was  a  constant  stimulus  to  excitement  kept 
up  from  across  the  American  frontier  by  sympathizers 
with  any  republican  movement;  and  there  were  some 
excitable  persons  inclined  for  revolutionary  change  in  the 
province  itself  whose  zeal  caught  fire  when  the  flame  broke 
out  in  Lower  Canada.     But  it  seems  to  have  been  an 


i. 


:! 


.\ 


44 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


; ',     I 


ii 


i 


exotic  movement  altogether,  and,  so  far  as  its  military 
history  is  concerned,  deserves  notice  chiefly  for  the  chiv- 
alrous  eccentricity  of  the  plan  by  which  the  governor  of 
the  province  undertook  to  put  it  down.  The  governor  was 
the  gallant  and  fanciful  soldier  and  traveller,  Sir  Francis, 
then  Major,  Head.  He  who  had  fought  at  Waterloo,  and 
seen  much  service  besides,  was  quietly  pet  forming  the 
duties  of  Assistant  Poor  Law  Commissioner  for  the  county 
of  Kent,  when  he  was  summoned,  in  1835,  at  a  moment's 
notice  to  assume  the  governorship  of  Upper  Canada. 
When  the  rebellion  broke  out  in  that  province,  Major 
Head  proved  himself  not  merely  equal  to  the  occasion,  but 
boldly  superior  to  it.  He  promptly  resolved  to  win  a 
grand  moral  victory  over  all  rebellion  then  and  for  the 
future.  He  was  seized  with  a  desire  to  show  to  the  whole 
world  how  vain  it  was  for  any  disturber  to  think  of  shak- 
ing the  loyalty  of  the  province  under  his  control.  He 
issued  to  rebellion  in  general  a  challenge  not  unlike  that 
which  Shakespeare's  Prince  Harry  offers  to  the  chiefs  of 
the  insurrection  against  Henry  IV.  He  invited  it  to  come 
on  and  settle  the  controversy  by  a  sort  of  duel.  He  sent  all 
the  regular  soldiers  out  of  the  province  to  the  help  of  the 
authorities  of  Lower  Canada;  he  allowed  the  rebels  to 
mature  their  plans  in  any  way  they  liked ;  he  permitted 
them  to  choose  their  own  day  and  hour,  and  when  they 
were  ready  to  begin  their  assaults  on  constituted  authority, 
he  summoned  to  his  side  the  militia  and  all  the  loyal  in- 
habitants, and  with  their  help  he  completely  extinguished 
the  rebellion.  It  was  but  a  very  trifling  affair;  it  went 
out  or  collapsed  in  a  moment.  Major  Head  had  his  desire. 
He  showed  that  rebellion  in  that  province  was  not  a  thing 
serious  enough  to  call  for  the  intervention  of  regular 
troops.  The  loyal  colonists  were  for  the  most  part  de- 
lighted with  the  spirited  conduct  of  their  leader  and  his 
new-fashioned  way  of  dealing  with  rebellion.  No  doubt 
the  moral  eflfect  was  highly  imposing.  The  plan  was 
almost  as  original  as  that  described  in  Herodotus   and 


hi 
1.11. 1 


Canada  and  Lord  Durham. 


45 


introduced  into  one  of  Massinger's  plays,  when  the  moral 
authority  of  the  masters  is  made  to  assert  itself  over  the 
rebellious  slaves  by  the  mere  exhibition  of  the  symbolic 
whip.  But  the  authorities  at  home  took  a  somewhat  more 
prosaic  view  of  the  policy  of  Sir  Francis  Head.  It  was 
suggested  that  if  the  fears  of  many  had  been  realized  and  the 
rebellion  had  been  aided  by  a  large  force  of  sympathizers 
from  the  United  States,  the  moral  authority  of  Canadian 
loyalty  might  have  stood  greatly  in  need  of  the  material 
presence  of  regular  troops.  In  the  end  Sir  Francis  Head 
resigned  his  office.  His  loyalty,  courage,  and  success 
were  acknowledged  by  the  gift  of  a  baronetcy ;  and  he 
obtained  the  admiration  not  merely  of  those  who  approved 
his  policy,  but  even  of  many  among  those  who  felt  bound 
to  condemn  it.  Perhaps  it  may  be  mentioned  that  there 
were  some  who  persisted  to  the  last  in  the  belief  that  Sir 
Francis  Head  was  not  by  any  means  so  rashly  chivalrous  as 
he  had  allowed  himself  to  be  thought,  and  that  he  had  full 
preparation  made,  if  his  moral  demonstration  should  fail, 
to  supply  its  place  in  good  time  with  more  commonplace 
and  effective  measures. 

The  news  of  the  outbreaks  in  Canada  created  a  natural 
excitement  in  this  country.  There  was  a  very  strong  feel- 
ing of  sympathy  among  many  classes  here — not,  indeed, 
with  the  rebellion,  but  with  the  colony  which  complained 
of  what  seemed  to  be  genuine  and  serious  grievances. 
Public  meetings  were  held  at  which  resolutions  were 
passed,  ascribing  the  disturbances,  in  the  first  place,  to  the 
refusal  by  the  Government  of  any  redress  sought  for  by 
the  colonists.  Mr.  Hume,  the  pioneer  of  financial  reform, 
took  the  side  of  the  colonists  very  warmly,  both  in  and  out 
of  Parliament.  During  one  of  the  Parliamentary  debates 
on  the  subject,  Sir  Robert  Peel  referred  to  the  principal 
leader  of  the  rebellion  in  Upper  Canada  as  "  a  Mr.  Mac- 
kenzie. "  Mr.  Hume  resented  this  way  of  speaking  of  a 
prominent  colonist,  and  remarked  t'lat  **  there  was  a  Mr. 
Mackenzie  as  there  might  be  a  Sir  Robert  Peel,"  and 


i 


46 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


ii  >.  fe  !l! 


^  (I) 


1  i 

<»; 

r  ; 

V   t^ 

*. 

1  : 

'         11 

'1 

■         .< 

•  1 

|i  : 


'  !      i. 


created  some  amusement  by  referring  to  the  declarations 
of  Lord  Chatham  on  the  American  Stamp  Act,  which  he 
cited  as  the  opinions  of  "  a  Mr.  Pitt. "  Lord  John  Russell, 
on  the  part  of  the  Government,  introduced  a  bill  to  deal 
with  the  rebellious  province.  The  bill  proposed,  in  brief, 
to  suspend  for  a  time  the  constitution  of  Lower  Canada, 
and  to  send  out  from  this  country  a  governor-general  and 
high-commissioner,  with  full  powers  to  deal  with  the  re- 
bellion, and  to  remodel  the  constitution  of  both  provinces. 
The  proposal  met  with  a  good  deal  of  opposition  at  first 
on  very  different  grounds,  Mr.  Roebuck,  who  was  then, 
as  it  happened,  out  of  Parliament,  appeared  as  the  agent 
and  representative  of  the  province  of  Lower  Canada,  and 
demanded  to  be  heard  at  the  bar  of  both  the  Houses  in 
opposition  to  the  bill.  After  some  little  demur  his  de- 
mand was  granted,  and  he  stood  at  the  bar,  first  of  the 
Commons,  and  then  of  the  Lords,  and  opposed  the  bill  on 
the  gfround  that  it  unjustly  suspended  the  constitution  of 
Lower  Canada  in  consequence  of  disturbances  provoked 
by  the  intolerable  oppression  of  the  home  Government. 
A  critic  of  that  day  remarked  that  most  orators  seemed  to 
make  it  their  business  to  conciliate  and  propitiate  the 
audience  they  desired  to  win  over,  but  that  Mr.  Roebuck 
seemed  from  the  very  first  to  be  determined  to  set  all  his 
hearers  against  him  and  his  cause.  Mr.  Roebuck's 
speeches  were,  however,  exceedingly  argumentative  and 
powerful  appeals.  Their  effect  was  enhanced  by  the 
singularly  youthful  appearance  of  the  speaker,  who  is  de- 
scribed as  looking  like  a  boy  hardly  out  of  his  teens. 

It  was  evident,  however,  that  the  proposal  of  the  Gov- 
ernment must  in  the  main  be  adopted.  The  general 
opinion  of  Parliament  decided,  not  unreasonably,  that 
that  was  not  the  moment  for  entering  into  a  consideration 
of  the  past  policy  of  the  Government,  and  that  the  country 
could  do  nothing  better  just  then  than  send  out  some  man 
of  commanding  ability  and  character  to  deal  with  the  ex- 
isting condidon  of  things.     There  was  an  almost  universal 


1,1  '  ■'••-?!*<«¥ 


Canada  and  Lord  Durham. 


47 


admission  that  the  Government  had  found  the  right  man 
when  Lord  John  Russell  mentioned  the  name  of  Lord 
Durham. 

Lord  Durham  was  a  man  of  remarkable  character.  It  is 
a  matter  of  surprise  how  little  his  name  is  thought  of  by 
the  present  generation,  seeing  what  a  strenuous  figure  he 
seemed  in  the  eyes  of  his  contemporaries,  and  how  strik- 
ing a  part  he  played  in  the  politics  of  a  time  which  has 
even  still  some  living  representatives.  He  belonged  to 
one  of  the  oldest  families  in  England.  The  Lambtons 
had  lived  on  their  estate  in  the  North,  in  uninterrupted 
succession,  since  the  Conquest.  The  male  succession,it  is 
stated,  never  was  interrupted  since  the  twelfth  century. 
They  were  not,  however,  a  family  of  aristocrats.  Their 
wealth  was  derived  chiefly  from  coal  mines,  and  grew  up 
in  later  days ;  the  property  at  first,  and  for  a  long  time, 
was  of  inconsiderable  value.  For  more  than  a  century, 
however,  the  Lambtons  had  come  to  take  rank  among  the 
gentry  of  the  county,  and  some  member  of  the  family  had 
represented  the  city  of  Durham  in  the  House  of  Commons 
from  1727  until  the  early  death  of  Lord  Durham's  father 
in  December,  1797.  William  Henry  Lambton,  Lord 
Durham's  father,  was  a  stanch  Whig,  and  had  been  a 
friend  and  associate  of  Fox.  John  George  Lambton,  the 
son,  was  born  at  Lambton  Castle  in  April,  1792.  Before 
he  was  quite  twenty  years  of  age,  he  made  a  romantic 
marriage  at  Gretna  Green  with  a  lady  who  died  three  years 
after.  He  served  for  a  short  time  in  a  regiment  of  Hus- 
sars. About  a  year  after  the  death  of  his  first  wife  he 
married  the  eldest  daughter  of  Lord  Grey.  He  was  then 
only  twenty-four  years  of  age.  He  had  before  this  been 
returned  to  Parliament  for  the  county  of  Durham,  and  he 
soon  distinguished  himself  as  a  very  advanced  and  ener- 
getic reformer.  While  in  the  Commons  he  seldom  ad- 
dressed the  House,  but  when  he  did  speak,  it  was  in  sup- 
port of  some  measure  of  reform,  or  against  what  he  con- 
ceived to  be  antiquated  and  illiberal  legislation.     He 


!^ 


rP 


H; 


48 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


brought  out  a  plan  of  his  own  for  Parliamentary  reform 
in  1821.  In  1828  he  was  raised  to  the  peerage,  with  the 
title  of  Baron  Durham.  When  the  ministry  of  Lord  Grey 
was  formed,  in  November,  1830,  Lord  Durham  became 
Lord  Privy  Seal.  He  is  said  to  have  had  an  almost  com- 
plete control  over  Lord  Grey.  He  had  an  impassioned 
and  energetic  nature,  which  sometimes  drove  him  into 
outbreaks  of  feeling  which  most  of  his  colleagues  dreaded. 
Various  highly-colored  descriptions  of  stormy  scenes  be- 
tween him  and  his  companions  in  office  are  given  by  writ- 
ers of  the  time.  Lord  Durham,  his  enemies  and  some  of 
his  friends  said,  bullied  and  browbeat  his  opponents  in 
the  cabinet,  and  would  sometimes  hardly  allow  his  father- 
in-law  and  official  chief  a  chance  of  putting  in  a  word  on 
the  other  side,  or  in  mitigation  of  his  tempestuous  mood. 
He  was  thorough  in  his  reforming  purposes,  and  would 
have  rushed  at  radical  changes  with  scanty  consideration 
for  the  time  or  for  the  temper  of  his  opponents.  He  had 
very  little  reverence  indeed  for  what  Carlyle  calls  the 
majesty  of  custom.  Whatever  he  wished  he  strongly 
wished.  He  had  no  idea  of  reticence,  and  cared  not 
much  for  the  decorum  of  office.  It  is  not  necessary  to  be- 
lieve all  the  stories  told  by  those  who  hated  and  dreaded 
Lord  Durham,  in  order  to  accept  the  belief  that  he  really 
was  somewhat  of  an  enfant  terrible  to  the  stately  Lord  Grey, 
and  to  the  easy-going  colleagues  who  were  by  no  means 
ctbsolutely  eaten  up  by  their  zeal  for  reform.  In  the  pow- 
erful speech  which  he  delivered  in  the  House  of  Lords  on 
the  Reform  Bill  there  is  a  specimen  of  his  eloquence  of 
denunciation  which  might  well  have  startled  listeners, 
even  in  those  days  when  the  license  of  speech  was  often 
sadly  out  of  proportion  with  its  legalized  liberty.  Lord 
Durham  was  especially  roused  to  anger  by  some  observa- 
tions made  in  the  debate  of  a  previous  night  by  the  Bishop 
of  Exeter.  He  described  the  prelate's  speech  as  an  ex- 
hibition of  "  coarse  and  virulent  invective,  malignant  and 
false  insinuation,  the  grossest  perversions  of  historical 


A\ 


Canada  and  Lord  Durham. 


49 


facts  decked  out  with  all  the  choicest  floweis  of  pamphle- 
teering slang."  He  was  called  to  order  foi  these  words, 
and  a  peer  moved  that  they  be  taken  dowE .  Lord  Dur- 
ham was  by  no  means  dismayed.  He  coolly  declared  that 
he  did  not  mean  to  defend  his  language  as  the  most 
elegant  or  graceful,  but  that  it  exactly  conveyed  the  ideas 
regarding  the  bishop  which  he  meant  to  express;  that 
he  believed  the  bishop's  speech  to  contain  insinuations 
which  were  as  false  as  scandalous;  that  he  had  said  so; 
that  he  now  begged  leave  to  repeat  the  words,  and  that  he 
pp.ased  to  give  any  noble  lord  who  thought  fit  an  oppor- 
tunity of  taking  them  down.  Not  one,  however,  seemed 
disposed  to  encounter  any  further  this  impassi  oned  adver- 
sary, and  when  he  had  had  his  say.  Lord  Durham  became 
somewhat  mollified,  and  ende  '/ored  to  soften  the  pain  of 
the  impression  he  had  made.  He  begged  the  House  of 
Lords  to  maV.e  some  allowance  for  him  if  he  had  spoken 
too  warmly ;  for,  as  he  said  with  much  pathetic  force,  his 
mind  had  lately  been  tortured  by  domestic  loss.  He  thus 
alluded  to  the  recent  death  of  his  eldest  son — "  a  beautiful 
boy,"  says  a  >vriter  of  some  years  ago,  "whos;e  features 
will  live  forever  in  the  well-known  picture  by  Lawrence. " 
The  whole  of  this  incident — the  fierce  attack  and  the 
sudden  pathetic  expression  of  regret — will  serve  well 
enough  to  illustrate  the  emotional,  uncontrolled  character 
of  Lord  Durham.  He  was  one  of  the  men  who,  even  when 
they  are  thorou^jhly  in  the  right,  have  often  the  unhappy 
art  of  seeming  to  put  themselves  completely  in  the  wrong. 
He  was  the  mos ;  advanced  of  all  the  reformers  in  the  re- 
forming ministry  of  Lord  Grey.  His  plan  of  reform  in 
182 1  proposed  tc>  give  four  hundred  members  to  certain 
districts  of  town  and  country,  in  which  every  householder 
should  have  a  vo  ;e.  When  Lord  Grey  had  formed  his  re- 
form ministry,  Li^rd  Durham  sent  for  Lord  John  Russell 
and  requested  hitr  to  draw  up  a  scheme  of  reform.  A 
committee  was  formed  on  Lord  Durham's  suggestion, 
consisting  of  Sir  James  Graham,  Lord  Duncannon,  Lord 
Vol.  I.— 4 


f-. 


1i 


II 


50 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


John  Russell,  and  Lord  Durham  himself.  Lord  John 
Russell  drew  up  a  plan,  which  he  published  long  after, 
with  the  alterations  which  Lord  Durham  had  suggested 
and  written  in  his  own  hand  on  the  margin.  If  Lord 
Durham  had  had  his  way  the  ballot  would  at  that  time 
have  been  included  in  the  programme  of  the  Government ; 
and  it  was,  indeed,  understood  that  at  one  period  of  the 
discussions  he  had  won  over  his  colleagues  to  his  opinion 
on  that  subject.  He  was,  in  a  word,  the  Radical  member 
of  the  cabinet,  with  all  the  energy  which  became  such  a 
character;  with  that  "  magnificent  indiscretion"  which  had 
been  attributed  to  a  greater  man — Edmund  Burke ;  with 
all  that  courage  of  his  opinions  which,  in  the  Frenchified 
phraseology  of  modern  politics,  is  so  much  talked  of,  so 
rarely  found,  and  so  little  trusted  or  successful  when  it 
is  found. 

Not  long  after  Lord  Durham  was  raised  in  the  peerage 
and  became  an  earl  His  influence  over  Lord  Grey  con- 
tinued great,  but  his  differences  of  opinion  with  his  former 
colleagues — he  had  resigned  his  office — became  greater 
and  greater  every  day.  More  than  once  he  had  taken  the 
public  into  his  confidence  in  his  characteristic  and  heed- 
less way.  He  was  sent  on  a  mission  to  Russia,  perhaps  to 
get  him  out  of  the  '>^'ay,  and  afterward  he  was  made  am- 
bassador at  the  Russian  court.  In  the  interval  between 
his  mission  and  his  formal  appointment  he  had  come  back 
to  England  and  performed  a  series  of  enterprises  which 
in  the  homely  and  undignified  language  of  American  poli- 
tics would  probably  be  called  "^ stumping  the  country." 
He  was  looked  to  with  much  hope  by  the  more  extreme 
Liberals  in  the  country,  and  with  corresponding  dislike 
and  dread  by  all  who  thought  the  country  had  gone  far 
enough,  or  much  too  far  in  the  recent  political  changes. 

None  of  his  opponents,  however,  denied  his  great  abil- 
ity. He  was  never  deterred  by  conventional  beliefs  and 
habits  from  looking  boldly  into  the  very  heart  of  a  great 
political  difficulty.     He  was  never  afraid  to  propose  what, 


Canada  and  Lord  Durham, 


51 


in  times  later  than  his,  have  been  called  heroic  remedies. 
There  was  a  general  impression,  perhaps,  even  among 
those  who  liked  him  least,  that  he  was  a  sort  of  "  unem- 
ployed Caesar,"  a  man  who  only  required  a  field  large 
enough  to  develop  great  qualities  in  the  ruling  of  men. 
The  difficulties  in  Canada  seemed  to  have  come  as  if  ex- 
pressly to  give  him  an  opportunity  of  proving  himself  all 
that  his  friends  declared  him  to  be,  or  of  justifying  for- 
ever the  distrust  of  his  enemies.  He  went  out  to  Canada 
with  the  assurance  of  every  one  that  his  expedition  would 
either  make  or  mar  a  career,  if  not  a  country. 

Lord  Durham  went  out  to  Canada  with  the  brightest 
hopes  and  prospects.  He  took  with  him  two  of  the  men 
best  qualified  in  England  at  that  time  to  make  his  mission 
a  success — Mr.  Charles  Duller  and  Mr.  Edward  Gibbon 
Wakefield.  He  understood  that  he  was  going  out  as  a 
dictator,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  expedition 
was  regarded  in  this  light  by  England  and  by  the  colonies. 
We  have  remarked  that  people  looked  on  his  mission  as 
likely  to  make  or  mar  a  career,  if  not  a  country.  What 
it  did,  however,  was  somewhat  different  from  that  which 
any  one  expected.  Lord  Durham  found  out  a  new  alter- 
native. He  made  a  country,  and  he  marred  a  career.  He 
is  distinctly  the  founder  of  the  system  which  has  since 
worked  with  such  gratifying  success  in  Canada ;  he  is  the 
founder,  even,  of  the  principle  which  allowed  the  quiet 
development  of  the  provinces  into  a  confederation  with 
neighboring  colonies  under  the  name  of  the  Dominion  of 
Canada.  But  the  singular  quality  which  in  home  politics 
had  helped  to  mar  so  much  of  Lord  Durham's  personal 
career  was  in  full  work  during  his  visit  to  Canada.  It 
would  not  be  easy  to  find  in  modern  political  history  so  curi- 
ous an  example  of  splendid  and  lasting  success  combined 
with  all  the  appearance  of  utter  and  disastrous  failure.  The 
mission  of  Lord  Durham  saved  Canada.  It  ruined  Lord 
Durham.  At  the  moment  it  seemed  to  superficial  observ- 
ers to  have  been  as  injurious  to  the  colony  as  to  the  man. 


W  {■ 


^ 


h' 


I        :     fl' 


H 


52 


j4  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


Lord  Durham  arrived  in  Quebec  at  the  end  of  May, 
1838.  He  at  once  issued  a  proclamation,  in  style  like  that 
of  a  dictator.  It  was  not  in  any  way  unworthy  of  the 
occasion,  which  especially  called  for  the  intervention  of  a 
brave  and  enlightened  dictatorship.  He  declared  that  he 
would  unsparingly  punish  any  who  violated  the  laws,  but 
he  frankly  invited  the  co-operation  of  the  colonies  to  form 
a  new  system  of  government  really  suited  to  their  wants 
and  to  the  altering  conditions  of  civilization.  Unfortu- 
nately, he  had  hardly  entered  on  his  work  of  dictatorship 
when  he  found  that  he  was  no  longer  a  dictator.  In  the 
passing  of  the  Canada  Bill  through  Parliament  the  powers 
which  he  understood  were  to  be  conferred  upon  him  had 
been  considerably  reduced.  Lord  Durham  went  to  work, 
however,  as  if  he  were  still  invested  with  absolute  author- 
ity over  all  the  laws  and  conditions  of  the  colony.  A 
very  Caesar  laying  down  the  line  for  the  future  government 
of  a  province  could  hardly  have  been  more  boldly  arbi- 
trary. Let  it  be  said,  also,  that  Lord  Durham's  arbitrari- 
ness was  for  the  most  part  healthy  in  effect  and  just  in 
spirit.  But  it  gave  an  immense  opportunity  of  attack  on 
himself  and  on  the  Government  to  the  enemies  of  both  at 
home.  Lord  Durham  had  hardly  begun  his  work  of 
reconstruction  when  his  recall  was  clamored  for  by  vehe- 
ment voices  in  Parliament. 

Lord  Durham  began  by  issuing  a  series  of  ordinances  in- 
tended to  provide  for  the  security  of  Lower  Canada.  He 
proclaimed  a  very  liberal  amnesty,  to  which,  however, 
there  were  certain  exceptions.  The  leaders  of  the  rebel- 
lious movement,  Papineau  and  others,  who  had  escaped 
from  the  colony,  were  excluded  from  the  amnesty.  So 
likewise  were  certain  prisoners  who  either  had  voluntarily 
confessed  themselves  guilty  of  high-treason,  or  had  been 
induced  to  make  such  an  acknowledgment  in  the  hope  of 
obtaining  a  mitigated  punishment.  These  Lord  Durham 
ordered  to  be  transported  to  Bermuda;  and  for  any  of 
these,  or  of  the  leaders  who  had  escaped,  who  should  re- 


Canada  and  Lord  Durham. 


53 


turn  to  the  colony  without  permission,  he  proclaimed  that 
they  should  be  deemed  guilty  of  high-treason,  and  con- 
demned to  suffer  death.     It  needs  no  learned  legal  axgw- 
ment  to  prove  that  this  was  a  proceeding  not  to  be  justified 
by  any  of  the  ordinary  forms  of  law.     Lord  Durham  had 
not  power  to  transport  any  one  to  Bermuda.     He  had  no 
authority  over  Bermuda ;  he  had  no  authority  which  he 
could  delegate  to  the  officials  of  Bermuda  enabling  them 
to  detain  political  prisoners.     Nor  had  he  any  power  to 
declare  that  persons  who  returned  to  the  colony  were  to  be 
liable  to  the  punishment  of  death.     It  is  not  a  capital 
offence  by  any  of  the  laws  of  England  for  even  a  trans- 
ported convict  to  break  bounds  and  return  to  his  home. 
All  this  was  quite  illegal ;  that  is  to  say,  was  outside  the 
limits  of  Lord  Durham's  legal  authority.     Lord  Durham 
was  well  aware  of  the  fact.     He  had  not  for  a  moment 
supposed  that  he  was  acting  in  accordance  with  ordinary 
English  law.     He  was  acting  in  the  spirit  of  a  dictator,  at 
once  bold  and  merciful,  who  is  under  the  impression  that 
he  has  been  invested  with  extraordinary  powers  for  the 
very  reason  that  the  crisis  does  not  admit  of  the  ordinary 
operations  of  law.     For  the  decree  of  death  to  banished 
men  returning  without  permission,  he  had,  indeed,  the 
precedent  and  authority  of  acts  passed  already  by  the  colo- 
nial Parliament  itself ;  but  Lord  Durham  did  not  care  for 
any  such  authority.     He  found  that  he  had  on  his  hands  a 
considerable  number  of  prisoners  whom  it  would  be  ab- 
surd to  put  on  trial  in  Lower  Canada  with  the  usual  forms 
of  law.     It  would  have  been  absolutely  impossible  to  get 
any  unpacked  jury  to  convict  them.     They  would  have 
been  triumphantly  acquitted.     The  authority  of  the  Crown 
would  have  been  brought  into  greater  contempt  than  ever. 
So  little  faith  had  the  colonists  in  the  impartial  working 
of  the  ordinary  law  in  the  governor's  hands,  that  the  uni- 
versal impression  in  Lower  Canada  was  that  Lord  Durham 
would  have  the  prisoners  tried  by  a  packed  jury  of  his 
own  officials,  convicted  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  executed 


V 


54 


j4  History  of  Our  Ovn  Times. 


*  i 


:f     W 


out  of  hand.  It  was  with  amazement  people  found  that 
the  new  governor  would  not  stoop  to  the  infamy  of  pack- 
ing a  jury.  Lord  Durham  saw  no  better  way  out  of  the 
difficulty  than  to  impose  a  sort  of  exile  on  those  who  ad- 
mitted their  connection  with  the  rebellion,  and  to  prevent 
by  the  threat  of  a  severe  penalty  the  return  of  those  who 
had  already  fled  from  the  colony.  K's  amnesty  measure 
wasl^rgeand  liberal;  but  *'  c"  .  aot  see  that  he  could 
allow  prominent  offenders  ;  •  ri'n.-in  unrebuked  in  the 
colony;  and  to  attempt  to  bririg  !.hc;.i  to  trial  would  have 
been  to  secure  for  them,  not  puni;'  nent,  but  public 
honor. 

Another  measure  of  Lord  Durham's  was  likewise  open 
to  the  charge  of  excessive  use  of  power.  The  act  which 
appointed  him  prescribed  that  he  should  be  advised  by 
a  council,  and  that  every  ordinance  of  his  should  be  signed 
by  at  least  five  of  its  members.  There  was  already  a 
council  in  existence  nominated  by  Lord  Durham's  prede- 
cessor. Sir  J.  Colborne — a  sort  of  provisional  government 
put  together  to  supply  for  the  moment  the  place  of  the 
suspended  political  constitution.  This  council  Lord  Dur- 
ham set  aside  altogether,  and  substituted  for  it  one  of  his 
own  making,  and  composed  chiefly  of  his  secretaries  and 
the  members  of  his  staff.  In  truth  this  was  but  a  part  of 
the  policy  which  he  had  marked  out  for  himself.  He  was 
resolved  to  play  the  game  which  he  honestly  believed  he 
could  play  better  than  any  one  else.  He  had  in  his  mind, 
partly  from  the  inspiration  of  the  gifted  and  well-in- 
structed men  who  accompanied  and  advised  him,  a  plan 
which  he  was  firmly  convinced  would  be  the  salvation  of 
the  colony.  Events  have  proved  that  he  was  right.  His 
disposal  of  the  prisoners  was  only  a  clearing  of  the  decks 
for  the  great  action  of  remodelling  the  colony.  He  did 
not  allow  a  form  of  law  to  stand  between  him  and  his  pur- 
pose. Indeed,  as  we  have  already  said,  he  regarded  him- 
self as  a  dictator  sent  out  to  reconstruct  a  whole  system  in 
the  best  way  he  could.     When  he  was  accused  of  having 


Canada  and  Lord  Durham. 


55 


gone  beyond  the  law,  he  asked  with  a  scorn  not  wholly 
unreasonable :  "  What  are  the  constitutional  principles  re- 
maining in  force  where  the  whole  constitution  is  sus- 
pended? What  principle  of  the  British  constitution  holds 
good  in  a  country  where  the  people's  money  is  taken  from 
them  without  the  people's  consent;  where  representative 
government  is  annihilated ;  where  martial  law  has  been 
the  law  of  the  land,  and  where  trial  by  jury  exists  only  to 
defeat  the  ends  of  justice,  and  to  provoke  the  righteous 
scorn  and  indignation  of  the  community?" 

Still  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  less  impetuous  and 
impatient  spirit  than  that  of  Lord  Durham  might  have 
found  a  way  of  beginning  his  great  reforms  without  pro- 
voking such  a  storm  of  hostile  criticism.  He  was,  it  must 
always  be  remembered,  a  dictator  who  only  strove  to  use 
his  powers  for  the  restoration  of  liberty  and  constitutional 
government.  His  mode  of  disposing  of  his  prisoners  was 
arbitrary  only  in  the  interests  of  mercy.  He  declared 
openly  that  he  did  not  think  it  right  to  send  to  an  ordinary 
penal  settlement,  and  thus  brand  with  infamy,  men  whom 
the  public  feeling  of  the  colony  entirely  approved,  and 
whose  cause,  until  they  broke  into  rebellion,  had  far  more 
of  right  on  its  side  than  that  of  the  authority  they  com- 
plained of  could  claim  to  possess.  He  sent  them  to  Ber- 
muda simply  as  into  exile;  to  remove  them  from  the 
colony,  but  nothing  more.  He  lent  the  weight  of  this 
authority  to  the  colonial  Act,  which  prescribed  the  penalty 
of  death  for  returning  to  the  colony,  because  he  believed 
that  the  men  thus  proscribed  never  would  return. 

But  his  policy  met  with  the  severest  and  most  unmeas- 
ured criticism  at  home.  If  Lord  Durham  had  been  guilty 
of  the  worst  excesses  of  power  which  Burke  charged 
against  Warren  Hastings,  he  could  not  have  been  more 
fiercely  denounced  in  the  House  of  Lords.  He  was  ac- 
cused of  having  promulgated  an  ordinance  which  would 
enable  him  to  hang  men  without  any  trial  or  form  of  trial. 
None  of  his  opponents  seemed  to  remember  that,  whether 


; 


I 


«  ' 


m:  i   if 


'I !  P 

'•1  •>})■■ 


56 


>4  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


his  disposal  of  the  prisoners  was  right  or  wrong,  it  was 
only  a  small  and  incidental  part  of  a  great  policy  covering 
the  readjustment  of  the  whole  political  and  social  system 
of  a  splendid  colony.  The  criticism  went  on  as  if  the 
promulgation  of  the  Quebec  ordinances  was  the  be-all  and 
the  end-all  of  Lord  Durham's  mission.  His  opponents 
made  great  complaint  about  the  cost  of  his  progress  in 
Canada.  Lord  Durham  had  undoubtedly  a  lavish  taste  and 
love  for  something  like  Oriental  display.  He  made  his 
goings  about  in  Canada  like  a  gorgeous  royal  progress ; 
yet  it  was  well  known  that  he  took  no  remuneration  what- 
ever for  himself,  and  did  not  even  accept  his  own  personal 
travelling  expenses.  He  afterward  stated  in  the  House  of 
Lords  that  the  visit  cost  him  personally  ten  thousand 
pounds  at  least.  Mr.  Hume,  the  advocate  of  economy, 
made  sarcastic  comment  on  the  sudden  fit  of  parsimony 
which  seemed  to  have  seized,  in  Lord  Durham's  case, 
men  whom  he  had  never  before  known  to  raise  their  voices 
against  any  prodigality  of  expenditure. 

The  ministry  was  very  weak  in  debating  power  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  Lord  Durham  had  made  enemies  there. 
The  opportunity  was  tempting  for  assailing  him  and  the 
ministry  together.  Many  of  the  criticisms  were  undoubt- 
edly the  conscientious  protests  of  men  who  saw  danger  in 
any  departure  from  the  recognized  principles  of  constitu- 
tional law.  Eminent  judges  and  lawyers  in  the  House  of 
Lords  naturally  looked,  above  all  things,  to  the  proper 
administration  of  the  law  as  it  existed.  But  it  is  hard  to 
doubt  that  political  or  personal  enmity  influenced  some 
of  the  attacks  on  Lord  Durham's  conduct.  Almost  all 
the  leading  men  in  the  House  ot  Lords  were  against  him. 
Lord  Brougham  and  Lord  Lyndhurst  were  for  the  time 
leagued  in  opposition  to  the  Government  and  in  attack  on 
the  Canadian  policy.  Lord  Brougham  claimed  to  be  con- 
sistent. He  had  opposed  the  Canada  coercion  from  the 
beginning,  he  said,  and  he  opposed  illegal  attempts  to 
deal  with  Canada  now.     It  seems  a  little  hard  to  under- 


ill 


LORD    BROUGHAM 
From  the  Last  Photograph  from  Lif» 


M 


Canada  and  Lord  Durham. 


57 


stand  how  Lord  Brougham  could  really  have  so  far  mis- 
understood the  purpose  of  Lord  Durham's  proclamation 
as  to  believe  that  he  proposed  to  hang  men  without  the 
form  of  law.     However  Lord  Durham  may  have  broken 
the  technical  rules  of  law,  nothing  could  be  more  obvious 
than  the  fact  that  he  did  so  in  the  interest  of  mercy  and 
generosity,  and  not  that  of  tyrannical  severity.     Lord 
Brougham  inveighed  against  him  with  thundering  elo- 
quence, as  if  he  were  denouncing  another  Sejanus.      It 
must  be  owned  that  his  attacks  lost  some  of  their  moral 
effect  because  of  his  known  hatred  to  L'^fd  Melbourne  and 
the  ministry,  and  even  to  Lord  Durham  himself.     People 
said  that  Brougham  had  a  special  reason  for  feeling  hostile 
to  anything  done  by  Lord  Durham.     A  dinner  was  given 
to  Lord  Grey  by  the  Reformers  of  Edinburgh,  in  1834,  at 
which  Lord  Brougham  and  Lord  Durham  were  both  pres- 
ent.    Brougham  was  called  upon  to  speak,  and  in  the 
course  of  his  speech  he  took  occasion  to  condemn  certain 
too-zealous  Reformers  who  could  not  be  content  with  the 
changes  that  had  been  made,  but  must  demand  that  the 
ministry  should  rush  forward  into  wild  and  extravagant 
enterprises.     He  enlarged  upon  this  subject  with  great 
vivacity  and  with  amusing  variety  of  humorous  and  rhetor- 
ical illustration.     Lord  Durham  assumed  that  the  attack 
was  intended  for  him.     His  assumption  was  not  unnatural. 
When  he  came  in  his  turn  to  speak,  he  was  indiscreet 
enough  to  reply  directly  to  Lord  Brougham,  to  accept  the 
speech  of  the  former  as  a  personal  challenge,  and  in  bitter 
words  to  retort  invective  and  sarcasm.     The  scene  was  not 
edifying.     The  guests  were  scandalized.     The  effect  of 
Brougham's  speech  was  wholly  spoiled.     Brougham  was 
made  to  seem  a  disi  irber  of  order  by  the  indiscretion 
which  provoked  into  retort  a  man  notoriously  indiscreet 
and  incapable  of   self-restraint.     It  is  not  unfair  to  the 
memory  of  so  fierce  and  unsparing  a  political  gladiator  as 
Lord  Brougham  to  assume  that  when  he  felt  called  upon 
to  attack  the  Canadian  policy  of  Lord  Durham,  the  recol- 


58 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


/A 


lection  of  the  scene  at  the  Edinburgh  dinner  inspired  with 
additional  force  his  criticism  of  the  Quebec  ordinances. 

The  ministry  were  weak,  and  yielded.  They  had  in  the 
first  instance  approved  of  the  ordinances,  but  they  quickly 
gave  way  and  abandoned  them.  They  avoided  adirect  at- 
tempt on  the  part  of  Lord  Brougham  to  reverse  the  policy 
of  Lord  Durham  by  announcing  that  they  had  determined 
to  disallow  the  Quebec  ordinances.  Lord  Durham  learned 
for  the  first  time  from  an  American  paper  that  the  Govern- 
ment had  abandoned  him.  He  at  once  announced  his 
determination  to  give  up  his  position  and  to  return  to 
England.  His  letter  announcing  this  resolve  crossed  on 
the  ocean  the  dispatch  from  home  disallowing  his  ordi- 
nances. With  characteristic  imprudence,  he  issued  a  pro- 
clamation from  the  Castle  of  St.  Lewis,  in  the  city  of 
Quebec,  which  was  virtually  an  appeal  to  the  public  feeling 
of  the  colony  against  the  conduct  of  her  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment. When  the  news  of  this  extraordinary  proclamation 
reached  home.  Lord  Durham  was  called  by  the  Times 
newspaper  "the  Lord  High  Seditioner."  The  representa- 
tive of  the  sovereign,  it  was  said,  had  appealed  to  the 
judgment  of  a  still  rebellious  colony  against  the  policy  of 
the  sovereign's  own  advisers.  Of  course  Lord  Durham's 
recall  was  imavoidable.  The  Government  once  sent  out  a 
dispatch  removing  him  from  his  place  as  Governor  of 
British  North  America. 

Lord  Durham  had  not  waited  for  the  formal  recall.  He 
returned  to  England  a  disgraced  man.  Yet  even  then 
there  was  public  spirit  enough  among  the  English  people 
to  refuse  to  ratify  any  sentence  of  disgrace  upon  him. 
When  he  landed  at  Plymouth  he  was  received  with  ac- 
clamations by  the  population,  although  the  Government 
had  prevented  any  of  the  official  honor  usually  shown  to 
returning  governors  f^om  being  offered  to  him.  Mr. 
John  Stuart  Mill  has  claimed  with  modest  firmness  and 
with  perfect  justice  a  leading  share  in  influencing  public 
opinion  in  favor  of  Lord  Durham.     "Lord  Durham,"  he 


Canada  and  Lord  Durham. 


59 


says  in  his  autobiography,  "  was  bitterly  attacked  from  all 
sides,  inveighed  against  by  enemies,  given  up  by  timid 
friends ;  while  those  who  would  willingly  have  defended 
him  did  not  know  what  to  say.  He  appeared  to  be  re- 
turning a  defeated  and  discredited  man.  I  had  followed 
the  Canadian  events  from  the  beginning ;  I  had  been  one 
of  the  prompters  of  his  prompters ;  his  policy  was  almost 
exactly  what  mine  would  have  been,  and  I  was  in  a  posi- 
tion to  defend  it.  I  wrote  and  published  a  manifesto  in 
the  [Westminster]  Review,  in  which  I  took  the  very  high- 
est ground  in  his  behalf,  claiming  for  him  not  mere  ac- 
quittal, but  praise  and  honor.  Instantly  a  number  of 
other  writers  took  up  the  tone.  I  believe  there  was  a 
portion  of  truth  in  what  Lord  Durham  soon  after,  with 
polite  exaggeration,  said  to  me,  that  to  this  article  might  be 
ascribed  the  almost  triumphal  reception  which  he  met  with 
on  his  arrival  in  England.  I  believe  it  to  have  been  the 
word  in  season  which  at  a  critical  moment  does  much  to 
decide  the  result;  the  touch  which  determines  whether  a 
stone  set  in  motion  at  the  top  of  an  eminence  shall  roll 
down  on  one  side  or  on  the  other.  All  hopes  connected 
with  Lord  Durham  as  a  politician  soon  vanished;  but  with 
regard  to  Canadian  and  generally  to  colonial  policy  the 
cause  was  gained.  Lord  Durham's  report,  written  by 
Charles  Duller,  partly  under  the  inspiration  of  Wakefield, 
began  a  new  era;  its  recommendations,  extending  to  com- 
plete internal  self-government,  were  in  full  operation  in 
Canada  within  two  or  three  years,  and  have  been  since 
extended  to  nearly  all  the  other  colonies  of  European  race 
which  have  any  claim  to  the  character  of  important  com- 
munities." In  this  instance  the  victa  causa  pleased  not 
only  Cato,  but,  in  the  end,  the  gods  as  well. 

Lord  Durham's  report  was  acknowledged  by  enemies  as 
well  as  by  the  most  impartial  critics  to  be  a  masterly 
document.  As  Mr.  Mill  has  said,  it  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  political  success  and  social  prosperity  not  only  of 
Canada,  but  of  all  the  other  important  colonies.     After 


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having  expliined  in  the  most  exhaustive  manner  the 
causes  of  discontent  and  backwardness  in  Canada,  it  went 
on  to  recommend  that  the  government  of  the  colony  should 
be  put  as  much  as  possible  into  the  hands  of  the  colonists 
themselves,  that  they  themselves  should  execute  as  well  as 
make  the  laws,  the  limit  of  the  Imperial  Government's 
interference  being  in  such  matters  as  affect  the  relations 
of  the  colony  with  the  mother-country,  such  as  the  consti- 
tution and  form  of  government,  the  regulation  of  foreign 
relations  and  trade,  and  the  disposal  of  the  public  lands. 
Lord  Durham  proposed  to  establish  a  thoroughly  good 
system  of  municipal  institutions;  to  secure  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  judges ;  to  make  all  provincial  officers,  except 
the  governor  and  his  secretary,  responsible  to  the  colonial 
legislature;  and  to  repeal  all  former  legislation  with  re- 
spect to  the  reserves  of  land  for  the  clergy.  Finally,  he 
proposed  that  the  provinces  of  Canada  should  be  reunited 
politically  and  should  become  one  legislature,  containing 
the  representatives  of  both  races  and  of  all  districts.  It 
is  significant  that  the  report  also  recommended  that  in  any 
act  to  be  introduced  for  this  purpose,  a  provision  should 
be  made  by  which  all  or  any  of  the  other  North  American 
colonies  should,  on  the  application  of  their  legislatures 
and  with  the  consent  of  Canada,  be  admitted  into  the  Cana- 
dian Union.  Thus  the  separation  which  Fox  thought  un- 
wise was  to  be  abolished,  and  the  Canadas  were  to  be 
fused  into  one  system,  which  Lord  Durham  would  have 
had  a  federation.  In  brief,  Lord  Durham  proposed  to 
make  the  Canadas  self-governing  as  regards  their  internal 
affairs,  and  the  germ  of  a  federal  union.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  describe  in  detail  the  steps  by  which  the  Govern- 
ment gradually  introduced  the  recommendations  of  Lord 
Durham  to  Parliament  and  carried  them  to  success.  Lord 
Glenelg,  one  of  the  feeblest  and  most  apathetic  of  colonial 
secretaries,  had  retired  from  office,  partly,  no  doubt,  be- 
cause of  the  attacks  in  Parliament  on  his  administration 
of  Canadian  affairs.     He  was  succeeded  at  the  Colonial 


Canada  and  Lord  Durham. 


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Office  by  Lord  Normanby,  and  Lord  Normanby  gave  way 
in  a  few  months  to  Lord  John  Russell,  who  was  full  of 
energy  and  earnestness.  Lord  Durham's  successor  and 
disciple  in  the  work  of  Canadian  government,  Lord  Syden- 
ham— best  known  as  Mr.  Charles  Poulett  Thomson,  one  of 
the  pioneers  of  free-trade — received  Lord  John  Russell's 
cordial  co-operation  and  support.  Lord  John  Russell  in- 
troduced into  the  House  of  Commons  a  bill  which  he  de- 
scribed as  intended  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  permanent 
settlement  of  the  affairs  of  Canada.  The  measure  was 
postponed  for  a  session  because  some  statesmen  thought 
that  it  would  not  be  acceptable  to  the  Canadians  them- 
selves. Some  little  sputterings  of  the  rebellion  had  also 
lingered  after  Lord  Durham's  return  to  this  country,  and 
these  for  a  short  time  had  directed  attention  away  from 
the  policy  of  reorganization.  In  1840,  however,  the  Act 
was  passed  which  reunited  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  on 
the  basis  proposed  by  Lord  Durham.  Further  legislation 
disposed  of  the  clergy  reserve  lands  for  the  general  bene- 
fit of  all  churches  and  denominations.  The  way  was  made 
clear  for  that  scheme  which  in  times  nearer  to  our  own  has 
formed  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 

Lord  Durham  did  not  live  to  see  the  success  of  the  pol- 
icy he  had  recommended.  We  may  anticipate  the  close  of 
his  career.  Within  a  few  days  after  the  passing  of  the 
Canada  Government  Bill  he  died  at  Cowes,  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  on  July  28th,  1840.  He  was  then  little  more  than 
forty-eight  years  of  age.  He  had  for  some  time  been  in 
failing  health,  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  mortifi- 
cation attending  his  Canadian  mission  had  worn  away  his 
strength.  His  proud  and  sensitive  spirit  could  ill  bear 
the  contradictions  and  humiliations  that  had  been  forced 
upon  him.  His  was  an  eager  and  a  passionate  nature, 
full  of  that  scBva  indignatio  which,  by  his  own  acknowledg- 
ment, tortured  the  heart  of  Swift.  He  wanted  to  the  suc- 
cess of  his  political  career  that  proud  patience  which  the 
gods  are  said  to  love,  and  by  virtue  of  which  great  men 


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live  down  misappreciation,  and  hold  out  until  they  see 
themselves  justified  and  hear  the  reprop.ches  turn  into 
cheers.  But  if  Lord  Durham's  personal  career  was  in  any 
way  a  failure,  his  policy  for  the  Canadas  was  a  splendid 
success.  It  established  the  principles  of  colonial  govern- 
mert.  There  were  undoubtedly  defects  in  the  construction 
of  the  actual  scheme  which  Lord  Durham  initiated,  and 
which  Lord  Sydenham,  who  died  not  long  after  him,  in- 
stituted. The  legislative  union  of  the  two  Canadas  was 
in  itself  a  makeshift,  and  was  only  adopted  as  such.  Lord 
Durham  would  have  had  it  otherwise  if  he  might;  but  he 
did  not  see  his  way  then  to  anything  like  the  complete 
federation  scheme  afterward  adopted.  But  the  success  of 
the  policy  lay  in  the  broad  principles  it  established,  and  to 
which  other  colonial  systems  as  well  as  that  of  the  Domin- 
ion of  Canada  owe  their  strength  and  security  to-day. 
One  may  say,  with  little  help  from  the  merely  fanciful, 
that  the  rejoicings  of  emancipated  colonies  might  have 
been  in  his  dying  ears  as  he  sank  into  his  early  grave. 


it^ ;! :  i 


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CHAPTER  IV. 


SCIENCE   AND  SPEED. 


The  opening  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria  coincided 
with  the  introduction  of  many  of  the  great  discoveries 
and  applications  in  science,  industry,  and  commerce  which 
we  consider  specially  representative  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion. A  reign  which  saw  in  its  earlier  years  the  applica- 
tion of  the  electric  current  to  the  task  of  transmitting 
messages,  the  first  successful  attempts  to  make  use  of  steam 
for  the  business  of  transatlantic  navigation,  the  general 
development  of  the  railway  system  all  over  these  countries, 
and  in  the  introduction  of  the  penny-post,  must  be  consid- 
ered to  have  obtained  for  itself,  had  it  secured  no  other 
memorials,  an  abiding  place  in  history.  A  distinguished 
author  has  lately  inveighed  against  the  spirit  which  would 
rank  such  improvements  as  those  just  mentioned  with  the 
genuine  triumphs  of  the  human  race,  and  has  gone  so  far 
as  to  insist  that  there  is  nothing  in  any  such  which  might 
not  be  expected  from  the  self-interested  contrivings  of 
a  very  inferior  animal  nature.  Amid  the  tendency  to 
glorify  beyond  measure  the  mere  mechanical  improve- 
ments of  modern  civilization,  it  is  natural  that  there  should 
arise  some  angry  questioning,  some  fierce  disparagement 
of  all  that  it  has  done.  There  will  always  be  natures  to 
which  the  philosophy  of  contemplation  must  seem  far 
nobler  than  the  philosophy  which  expresses  itself  ii 
mechanical  action.  It  may,  however,  be  taken  as  certain 
that  no  people  who  were  ever  great  in  thought  and  in  art 
wilfully  neglected  to  avail  themselves  of  all  possible  con- 
trivances for  making  life  less  laborious  by  the  means  of 
mechanical  and  artificial  contrivance.     The  Greeks  were, 


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to  the  best  of  their  opportunity,  and  when  at  the  highest 
point  of  their  glory  as  an  artistic  race,  as  eager  for  the 
application  of  all  scientific  and  mechanical  contrivances 
to  the  business  of  life  as  the  most  practical  and  boastful 
Manchester  man  or  Chicago  man  of  our  own  day.  We 
shall  afterward  see  that  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria  came 
to  have  a  literature,  an  art,  and  a  philosophy  distinctly 
its  own.  For  the  moment  we  have  to  do  with  its  industrial 
science ;  or,  at  least,  with  the  first  remarkable  movements 
in  that  direction  which  accompanied  the  opening  of  the 
reign.  This  at  least  must  be  said  for  them,  that  they 
have  changed  the  conditions  of  human  life  for  us  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  make  the  history  of  the  past  forty  or  fifty 
years  almost  absolutely  distinct  from  that  of  any  preceding 
period.  In  all  that  part  of  our  social  life  which  is  affected 
by  industrial  and  mechanical  appliances,  the  man  of  the 
latter  part  of  the  eiT^hteenth  century  was  less  widely  re- 
moved from  the  Englishman  of  the  days  of  the  Paston 
Letters  than  we  are  removed  from  the  ways  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  1  he  man  of  the  eighteenth  century  trav- 
elled on  land  and  sea  in  much  the  same  way  that  his 
forefathers  had  done  hundreds  of  years  before.  His  com- 
munications by  letter  with  his  fellows  were  carried  on 
in  very  much  the  same  method.  He  got  his  news  from 
abroad  and  at  home  £t  er  the  same  slow,  uncertain 
fashion.  His  streets  and  houses  were  lighted  very  much 
as  they  might  have  been  when  Mr.  Pepys  was  in  London. 
His  ideas  of  drainage  '^nd  ventilation  were  equally  ele- 
mentary and  simple.  We  see  a  complete  revolution  in  all 
ihese  things.  A  man  of  the  present  day  suddenly  thrust 
back  fifty  years  in  life  would  find  himself  almost  as  awk- 
wardly unsuited  to  the  ways  of  that  time  as  if  he  were  sent 
back  to  the  age  v/hen  the  Romans  occupied  Britain.  He 
would  find  himself  harassed  at  every  step  he  took.  He 
could  do  hardly  anything  as  he  does  it  to-day.  What- 
ever the  moral  and  philosophical  value  of  the  change  in  the 
eyes  of  thinkers  too  lofty  to  concern  themselves  with  the 


Science  and  Speed. 


65 


common  ways  and  doings  of  human  life,  this  is  certain  at 
least,  that  the  change  is  of  immense  historical  importance ; 
and  that  even  if  we  look  upon  life  as  a  mere  pageant  and 
show,  interesting  to  wise  men  only  by  its  curious  changes, 
a  wise  man  Of  this  school  could  hardly  have  done  better, 
if  the  choice  lay  with  him,  than  to  desire  that  the  lines  of 
his  life  might  be  so  cast  as  to  fall  into  the  earlier  part  of 
this  present  reign. 

It  is  a  somewhat  curious  coincidence  that  in  the  year 
when  Professor  Wheatstcne  and  Mr.  Cooke  took  out  their 
first  patent  '*  for  improvements  in  giving  signals  and  sound- 
ing alarms  in  distant  places  by  means  of  electric  currents 
transmitted  through  metallic  circuit,"  Professor  Morse, 
the  American  electrician,  applied  to  Congress  for  aid  in 
the  construction  and  carrying  on  of  a  small  electric  tele- 
graph to  convey  messages  a  short  distance,  and  made  the 
application  without  success.  In  the  following  year  he 
came  to  this  country  to  obtain  a  patent  for  his  invention ; 
but  he  was  refused.  He  had  come  too  late.  Our  own 
countrymen  were  beforehand  with  him.  Very  soon  after 
we  find  experiments  made  with  the  electric  telegraph  be- 
tween Euston  Square  and  Camden  Town.  These  experi- 
ments were  made  under  the  authority  of  the  London  and 
Northwestern  Railway  Company,  immediately  on  the 
taking  out  of  the  patent  by  Messrs.  Wheatstone  and  Cooke. 
Mr.  Robert  Stephenson  was  one  of  those  who  came  to  watch 
the  operation  of  this  new  and  wonderful  attempt  to  make 
the  currents  of  the  air  man's  faithful  Ariel.  The  London 
and  Birmingham  Railway  was  opened  through  its  whole 
length  in  1838.  The  Liverpool  and  Preston  line  was 
opened  in  the  same  year.  The  Liverpool  and  Birmingham 
had  been  opened  in  the  year  before;  the  London  and 
Croydon  was  opened  the  year  after.  The  Act  for  the 
transmission  of  the  mails  by  railways  was  passed  in  1838. 
In  the  same  year  it  was  noted  as  an  unparalleled,  and  to 
many  an  almost  incredible,  triumph  of  human  energy 
and  science  over  time  and  space  that  a  locomotive  had 
Vol.  I.--5 


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been  able  to  travel  at  a  speed  of  thirty-seven  miles  an 
hour. 

"  The  prospect  of  travelling  from  the  metropolis  to  Liv- 
erpool, a  distance  of  two  hundred  and  ten  miles,  in  ten 
hours,  calls  forcibly  to  mind  the  tales  of  fairies  and  genii 
by  which  we  were  amused  in  our  youth,  and  contrasts 
forcibly  with  the  fact,  attested  on  the  personal  experience 
of  the  v-n'ter  of  this  notice,  that  about  the  commencement 
of  the  piv.sent  century  this  same  journey  occupied  a  space 
of  sixty  hours."  These  are  the  words  of  a  writer  who 
gives  an  interesting  account  of  the  railways  of  England 
during  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria.  In 
the  same  volume  from  which  this  extract  is  taken  an  al- 
lusion is  made  to  the  possibility  of  steam  communication 
being  successfully  established  between  England  and  the 
United  States.  "Preparations  on  a  gigantic  scale,"  a 
writer  is  able  to  announce,  "  are  now  in  a  state  of  great 
forwardness  for  trying  an  experiment  in  steam  navigation 
which  has  been  the  subject  of  much  controversy  among 
scientific  men.  Ships  of  an  enormous  size,  furnished  with 
steam-power  equal  to  the  force  of  four  hundred  horses  and 
upward,  will,  bef  '^re  our  next  volume  shall  be  prepared, 
have  probably  decided  the  question  whether  this  descrip- 
tion of  vessels  can,  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge, 
profitably  engage  in  transatlantic  voyages.  It  is  possible 
that  these  attempts  may  fail — a  result  which  is,  indeed, 
predicted  by  high  authorities  on  this  subject.  We  are 
more  sanguine  in  our  hopes ;  but  should  these  be  disap- 
pointed, we  cannot,  if  we  are  to  judge  from  our  past  pro- 
gress, doubt  that  longer  experience  and  a  further  applica- 
tion of  inventive  genius  will,  at  no  very  distant  day, 
render  practicable  and  profitable  by  this  means  the  longest 
voyages  in  which  the  adventurous  spirit  of  man  will  lead 
him  to  embark."  The  experiment  thus  alluded  to  was 
made  with  perfect  success.  The  Sirius,  the  Great  Western, 
and  the  Royal  William  accomplished  voyages  between  New 
York  and  this  country  in  the  early  part  of  1838;  and  it 


Science  and  Speed. 


6^ 


was  remarked  that  "  Transatlantic  voyages  by  means  of 
steam  may  now  be  said  to  be  as  easy  of  accomplishment, 
with  ships  of  adequate  size  and  power,  as  the  passage  be- 
tween London  and  Margate. "  The  Grgaf  Western  crossed 
the  ocean  from  Bristol  to  New  York  in  fifteen  days.  She 
was  followed  by  the  Sirt'us,  which  left  Cork  for  New  York, 
and  made  the  passage  in  seventeen  days.  The  controversy 
as  to  the  possibility  of  such  voyages,  which  was  settled 
by  the  Great  Western  and  the  Sirt'us,  had  no  reference  to  the 
actual  safety  of  such  an  experiment.  During  seven  years 
the  mails  for  the  Mediterranean  had  been  dispatched  by 
means  of  steamers.  The  doubt  was  as  to  the  possibility 
of  stowing  in  a  vessel  so  large  a  quantity  of  coal  or  other 
fuel  as  would  enable  her  to  accomplish  her  voyage  across 
the  Atlantic,  where  there  could  be  no  stopping-place  and 
no  possibility  of  taking  in  new  stores.  It  was  found,  to  the 
delight  of  all  those  who  believed  in  the  practicability  of 
the  enterprise,  that  the  quantity  of  fuel  which  each  vessel 
had  on  board  when  she  left  her  port  of  departure  proved 
amply  sufficient  for  the  completion  of  the  voyage.  Neither 
the  Sirius  nor  the  Great  Western  was  the  first  vessel  to  cross 
the  Atlantic  by  means  of  steam  propulsion.  Nearly  twenty 
years  before,  a  vessel  called  the  Savannah,  built  at  New 
York,  crossed  the  ocean  to  Liverpool ;  and  some  years  later 
an  English -built  steamer  made  several  voyages  between 
Holland  and  the  Dutch  West  Indian  colonies  as  a  packet 
vessel  in  the  service  of  that  Government.  Indeed,  a  voy- 
age had  been  made  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  more 
lately  still  by  a  steamship.  These  expeditions,  however, 
had  really  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  problem  which 
was  solved  by  the  voyages  of  the  Sirius  and  the  Great 
Western.  In  the  former  instances  the  steam-power  was 
employed  merely  as  an  auxiliary.  The  vessel  made  as 
much  use  of  her  steam  propulsion  as  she  could,  but  she 
had  to  rely  a  good  deal  on  her  capacity  as  a  sailer.  This 
was  quite  a  different  thing  from  the  enterprise  of  the  Sirius 
and  the  Great  Western,  which  was  to  cross  the  ocean  by 


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steam  propulsion,  and  steam  propulsion  only.  It  is  evi- 
dent that,  so  long  as  the  steam-power  was  to  be  used  only 
as  an  auxiliary,  it  would  be  impossible  to  reckon  on  speed 
and  certainty  of  arrival.  The  doubt  was  whether  a 
steamer  could  carry,  with  her  cargo  and  passengers,  fuel 
enough  to  serve  for  the  whole  of  her  voyage  across  the 
Atlantic.  The  expeditions  of  the  Sirius  and  the  Great 
IVesiern  settled  the  whole  question.  It  was  never  again  .) 
matter  of  controversy.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  two  years 
after  the  Great  Western  went  out  from  Bristol  to  New  York 
the  Cunard  line  of  steamers  was  established.  The  steam 
communication  between  Liverpool  and  New  York  became 
thenceforth  as  regular  and  as  unvarying  a  part  of  the 
business  of  commerce  as  the  journeys  of  the  trains  on  the 
Great  Western  Railway  between  London  and  Bristol.  It 
was  not  Btistol  which  benefited  most  by  the  transatlantic 
voyages.  They  made  the  greatness  of  Liverpool.  Year 
by  year  the  sceptre  of  the  commercial  marine  passed  away 
from  Bristol  to  Liverpool.  No  port  in  the  world  can  show 
a  line  of  docks  like  those  of  Liverpool.  There  the  stately 
Mersey  flows  for  miles  between  the  superb  and  massive 
granite  walls  of  the  enclosures  within  whose  shelter  the 
ships  of  the  world  are  arrayed,  as  if  on  parade,  for  the 
admiration  of  the  traveller  who  has  hitherto  been  accus- 
tomed to  the  irregular  and  straggling  arrangements  of  the 
docks  of  London  or  of  New  York. 

On  July  5th,  1839,  an  unusually  late  period  of  the  year, 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  brought  forward  his 
annual  budget.  The  most  important  part  of  the  financial 
statement,  so  far  as  later  times  are  concerned,  is  set  out 
in  a  resolution  proposed  by  the  finance  minister,  which, 
perhaps,  presents  the  greatest  social  improvement  brought 
about  by  legislation  in  modern  times.  The  Chancellor 
proposed  a  resolution  declaring  that  "  it  is  expedient  to 
reduce  the  postage  on  letters  to  one  uniform  rate  of  one 
penny  charged  upon  every  letter  of  a  weight  to  be  hereafter 
fixed  by  law;  Parliamentary  privileges  of  franking  being 


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Science  and  Speed. 


t9 


abolished  and  official  franking  strictly  regulated;    this 
House  pledging  itself  at  the  same  time  to  make  good  any 
deficiency  of  revenue  which  may  be  occasioned  by  such  an 
alteration  in  the  rates  of  the  existing  duties."     Up  to  this 
time  the  rates  of  postage  had  been  both  high  and  various. 
They  were  varying  both  as  to  distance  and  as  to  the  weight 
and  even  the  size  or  the  shape  of  a  letter.     7'he  district  or 
London  post  was  a  separate  branch  of  the  ;jostal  depart- 
ment ;  and  the  charge  for  t>^e  transmission  of  letters  was 
made  on  a  different  s        ...  i-,ondon  from  that  which  pre- 
vailed between  town  and  town.     The  average  postage  on 
every  chargeable  letter  throughout  the  United  Kingdom 
was  sixpence  farthing.     A  letter  from  London  to  Brighton 
cost  eightpence;  to  Aberdeen  one  shilling  and  threepence 
halfpenny;  to  Belfast  one  shilling  and  fourpence.     Nor 
was  this  all ;  for  if  the  letter  were  written  on  more  than 
one  sheet  of  paper,  it  came  under  the  operation  of  a  higher 
scale  of  charge.     Members  of  Parliament  had  the  privilege 
of  franking  letters  to  a  certain  limited  extent ;  members 
of  the  Government  had  the  privilege  of  franking  to  an 
unlimited  extent.     It  is,  perhaps,  as  well  to  mention,  for 
the  sake  of  being  intelligible  to  all  readers  in  an  age  which 
has  not,  in  this  country  at  least,  known  practically  the 
beauty  and  liberality  of  the  franking  privilege,  that  it 
consisted  in  the  right  of  the  privileged  person  to  send  his 
own  or  any  other  person's  letters  through  the  post  free  of 
charge  by  merely  writing  his  name  on  the  outside.     This 
meant,  in  plain  words,  that  the  letters  of  the  class  who 
could  best  afford  to  pay  for  them  went  free  of  charge,  and 
that  those  who  could  least  afford  to  pay  had  to  pay  double 
— the  expense,  that  is  to  say,  of  carrying  their  own  letters 
and  the  letters  of  the  privileged  and  exempt. 

The  greatest  grievances  were  felt  everywhere  because 
of  this  abi,  ird  system.  It  had  along  with  its  other  disad- 
vantages that  of  encouraging  what  may  be  called  the 
smuggling  of  letters.  Everywhere  sprang  up  organiza- 
tions for  the  illicit  conveyance  of  correspondence  at  lower 


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rates  than  those  imposed  by  the  Government.  The  pro- 
prietors of  almost  every  kind  of  public  conveyance  are  said 
to  have  been  engaged  in  this  unlawful  but  certainly  not 
verj^  unnatural  or  unjustifiable  traffic.  Five-sixths  of  all 
the  letters  sent  between  Manchester  and  London  were  said 
to  have  been  conveyed  for  years  by  this  process.  One 
great  mercantile  house  was  proved  to  have  been  in  the 
habit  of  sending  sixty-seven  letters  by  what  we  may  call 
this  underground  post-office  for  every  one  on  which  they 
paid  the  Government  charges.  It  was  not  merely  to  escape 
heav;'  cost  that  these  stratagems  were  employed.  As 
there  was  an  additional  charge  when  a  letter  was  written 
on  more  sheets  than  one,  there  was  a  frequent  and  almost 
a  constant  tampering  by  officials  with  the  sanctity  of  sealed 
letters  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  or  not  they 
ought  to  be  taxed  on  the  higher  scale.  It  was  proved  that 
in  the  years  between  1815  and  1835,  while  the  population 
had  increased  thirty  per  cent,  and  the  stage-coach  duty 
had  increased  one  hundred  and  twent3r-eight  per  cent,  the 
Post-office  revenues  had  shown  no  increase  at  all.  In 
other  countries  the  postal  revenue  had  been  on  the  increase 
steadily  during  that  time ;  in  the  United  States  the  revenue 
had  actually  trebled,  although  then  and  later  the  postal 
system  of  America  was  full  of  faults  which  at  that  day 
only  seemed  intelligible  or  excusable  when  placed  in  com- 
parison with  those  of  our  own  system. 

Mr.  (afterward  Sir  Rowland)  Hill  is  the  man  to  whom 
this  country,  and,  indeed,  all  civilization,  owes  the  adop- 
tion of  the  cheap  and  uniform  system.  His  plan  has  been 
adopted  by  every  State  which  professes  to  have  a  postal 
system  at  all.  Mr.  Hill  belonged  to  a  remarkable  family. 
His  father,  Thomas  Wright  Hill,  was  a  teacher,  a  man  of 
advanced  and  practical  views  in  popular  education,  a  de- 
voted lover  of  science,  an  advocate  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  and  a  sort  of  celebrity  in  the  Birmingham  of  his 
day,  where  he  took  a  bold  and  active  part  in  trying  to  de- 
fend the  house  of  Dr.   Priestley  against  the  mob  who 


Science  and  Speed. 


7« 


attacked  it.  He  had  five  sons,  every  one  of  whom  made 
himself  more  or  less  conspicuous  as  a  practical  reformer 
in  one  path  or  another.  The  eldest  of  the  sons  was 
Matthew  Davenport  Hill,  the  philanthropic  recorder  of 
Birmingham,  who  did  so  much  for  prison  reform  and  for 
the  reclamation  of  juvenile  offenders.  The  third  son  was 
Rowland  Hill,  the  author  of  the  cheap  postal  system. 
Rowland  Hill  when  a  little  weakly  child  began  to  show 
some  such  precocious  love  for  arithmetical  calculations  as 
Pascal  showed  for  mathematics.  His  favorite  amusement, 
as  a  child,  was  to  lie  on  the  hearth-rug  and  count  up  figures 
by  the  hour  together.  As  he  grew  up  he  became  teacher 
of  mathematics  in  his  father's  school.  Afterward  he  was 
appointed  Secretary  to  the  South  Australian  Commission, 
and  rendered  much  valuable  service  in  the  organization  of 
the  colony  of  South  Australia.  His  early  love  of  masses 
of  figures  it  may  have  been  which  in  the  first  instance 
turned  his  attention  to  the  number  of  letters  passing 
through  the  Post-office,  the  proportion  they  bore  to  the 
number  of  the  population,  the  cost  of  carrying  them,  and 
the  amount  which  the  Post-office  authorities  charged  for 
the  conveyance  of  a  single  letter.  A  picturesque  and 
touching  little  illustration  of  the  veritable  hardships  of  the 
existing  system  seems  to  have  quicke*":d  his  interest  in  a 
reform  of  it.     Miss  Martineau  thus  tells  the  story: 

"  Coleridge,  when  a  young  man,  was  walking  through 
the  Lake  district,  when  he  one  day  saw  the  postman  de- 
liver a  letter  to  a  woman  at  a  cottage  door.  The  woman 
turned  it  over  and  examined  it,  and  then  returned  it,  say- 
ing she  could  not  pay  the  postage,  which  w?s  a  shilling. 
Hearing  that  the  letter  was  from  her  brother,  Coleridge 
paid  the  postage,  in  spite  of  the  manifest  unwillingness  of 
the  woman.  As  soon  as  the  postman  was  out  of  sight  she 
showed  Coleridge  how  his  money  had  been  wasted  as  far 
as  she  was  concerned.  The  sheet  was  blank.  There  was 
an  agreement  between  her  brother  and  herself  that  as  long 
as  all  went  well  with  him  he  should  send  a  blank  sheet  in 


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A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


this  way  once  a  quarter;  and  she  thus  had  tidings  of  him 
without  expense  of  postage.  Most  persons  would  have 
remembered  this  incident  as  a  curious  story  to  tell ;  but 
there  was  one  mind  which  wakened  up  at  once  to  a  sense 
of  the  significance  of  the  fact.  It  struck  Mr.  Rowland 
Hill  that  there  must  be  something  wrong  in  a  system 
which  drove  a  brother  and  sister  to  cheating,  in  order  to 
gratify  their  desire  to  hear  of  one  another's  welfare. " 

Mr.  Hill  gradually  worked  out  for  himself  a  compre- 
hensive scheme  of  reform.  He  put  h  before  the  world 
early  in  1837.  The  public  were  taken  by  surprise  when 
tue  plan  came  before  them  in  the  shape  of  a  pamphlet, 
which  its  author  modestly  entitled  "  Post-office  Reform : 
Its  Importance  and  Practicability. "  The  root  of  Mr.  Hill's 
system  lay  in  the  fact,  made  evident  by  him  beyond  dis- 
pute, that  the  actual  cost  of  the  conveyance  of  letters 
through  the  post  was  very  trifling,  and  was  but  little  in- 
creased by  the  distance  over  which  they  had  to  be  carried. 

His  proposal  was,  therefore,  that  the  rates  of  postage 
should  be  diminished  to  the  minimum ;  that  at  the  same 
time  the  speed  of  conveyance  should  be  increased,  and  that 
there  should  be  much  greater  frequency  of  dispatch.  His 
principle  was,  in  fact,  the  very  opposite  of  that  which  had 
prevailed  in  the  calculations  of  the  authorities.  Their 
idea  was  that  the  higher  the  charge  for  letters  the  greater 
the  return  to  the  revenue.  He  started  on  the  assumption 
that  the  smaller  the  charge  the  greater  the  profit.  He, 
therefore,  recommended  the  substitution  of  one  uniform 
charge  of  one  penny  the  half-ounce,  without  reference  to 
the  distance  within  the  limits  of  the  United  Kingdom 
which  the  letter  had  to  be  carried.  The  Post-office  author- 
ities were  at  first  uncompromising  in  their  opposition  to 
the  scheme.  The  Postmaster-general,  Lord  Lichfield, 
said  in  the  House  of  Lords  that  of  all  the  wild  and  extrav- 
agant schemes  he  had  ever  heard  of,  it  was  the  wildest 
and  most  extravagant.  "  The  mails, "  he  said,  "  will  have 
to  carry  twelve  times  as  much  weight,  and  therefore  the 


t  is  .,   ' 


i»gli  I  nrjiniwuni'iiillin 


Science  and  Speed. 


13 


charge  for  transmission,  instead  of  ;^  100,000,  as  now,  must 
be  twelve  times  that  amount.  The  walls  of  the  Post- 
office  would  burst ;  the  whole  area  in  which  the  building 
stands  would  not  b'?  large  enough  to  receive  the  clerks 
and  the  letters. "  It  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck  by  the 
paradoxical  peculiarity  of  this  argument.  Because  the 
change  would  be  so  much  welcomed  by  the  public.  Lord 
Lichfield  argfued  that  it  ought  not  to  be  made.  He  did  not 
fall  back  upon  the  then  familiar  assertion  that  the  public 
would  not  send  anything  like  the  number  of  letters  the 
advocates  of  the  scheme  expected.  He  argued  that  they 
would  send  so  many  as  to  make  it  troublesome  for  the 
Post-office  authorities  to  deal  with  them.  In  plain  words, 
it  would  be  such  an  immense  accommodation  to  the  popu- 
lation in  general  that  the  officials  could  not  undertake  the 
trouble  of  carrying  it  into  effect.  Another  Post-office 
official.  Colonel  Maberley,  was,  at  all  events,  more  liberal. 
"My  constant  language,"  he  said  afterward,  "to  the 
heads  of  the  departments  was — This  plan  we  know  will 
fail.  It  is  our  duty  to  take  care  that  no  obstruction  is 
placed  in  the  way  of  it  by  the  heads  of  the  departments, 
and  by  the  Post-office.  The  allegation,  I  have  not  the 
least  doubt,  will  be  made  at  a  subsequent  period,  that  this 
plan  has  failed  in  consequence  of  the  unwillingness  of  the 
Government  to  carry  it  into  fair  execution.  It  is  our  duty, 
as  servants  of  the  Government,  to  take  care  that  no  blame 
eventually  shall  fall  on  the  Government  through  any  un- 
willingness of  ours  to  carry  it  into  proper  effect."  It  is, 
perhaps,  less  surprising  that  the  routine  mind  of  officials 
should  have  seen  no  future  but  failure  for  the  scheme, 
when  so  vigorous  and  untrammelled  a  thinker  as  Sydney 
Smith  spoke  with  anger  and  contempt  of  the  fact  that  "  a 
million  of  revenue  is  given  up  in  the  nonsensical  Penny- 
post  scheme,  to  please  my  old,  excellent,  and  universally 
dissentient  friend,  Noah  Warburton."  Mr.  Warburton 
was  then  member  for  Bridport,  and,  with  Mr.  Wallace, 
another  member  of  Parliament,  was  very  active  in  sup- 


74 


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porting  and  promoting  the  views  of  Mr.  Hill.  "  I  admire 
the  Whig  Ministry, "  Sydney  Smith  went  on  to  say,  '*  and 
think  they  have  done  more  good  things  than  all  the  min- 
istries since  the  Revolution ;  but  these  concessions  are  sad 
and  unworthy  marks  of  weakness,  and  fill  reasonable  men 
with  alarm." 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  remark  alone  that  the  ministry 
had  yielded  somewhat  more  readily  than  might  have  been 
expected  to  the  arguments  of  Mr.  Hill.  At  the  time  his 
pamphlet  appeared  a  commission  was  actually  engaged  in 
inquiring  into  the  condition  of  the  Post-office  department. 
Their  attention  was  drawn  to  Mr.  Hill's  plan,  and  they 
gave  it  a  careful  consideration,  and  reported  in  its  favor, 
although  the  Post-office  authorities  were  convinced  that  it 
must  involve  an  unbearable  loss  of  revenue.  In  Parliament 
Mr.  Wallace,  whose  name  has  been  already  mentioned, 
moved  for  a  committee  to  inquire  into  the  whole  subject, 
and  especially  to  examine  the  mode  recommended  for 
charging  and  collecting  postage  in  the  pamphlet  of  Mr. 
Hill.  The  committee  gave  the  subject  a  very  patient 
consideration,  and  at  length  made  a  report  recommending 
uniform  charges  and  prepayment  by  stamps.  That  part 
of  Mr.  Hill's  plan  which  suggested  the  use  of  postage- 
stamps  was  adopted  by  him  on  the  advice  of  Mr.  Charles 
Knight.  The  Government  took  up  the  scheme  with  some 
spirit  and  liberality.  The  revenue  that  year  showed  a 
deficiency,  but  they  determined  to  run  the  further  risk 
which  the  proposal  involved.  The  commercial  commu- 
nity had  naturally  been  stirred  greatly  by  the  project  which 
promised  so  much  relief  and  advantage.  Sydney  Smith 
was  very  much  mistaken,  indeed,  when  he  fancied  that  it 
was  only  to  please  his  old  and  excellent  friend,  Mr. 
Warburton,  that  the  Ministry  gave  way  to  the  innovation. 
Petitions  from  all  the  commercial  communities  were  pour- 
ing in  to  support  the  plan,  and  to  ask  that  at  least  it  should 
have  a  fair  trial.  The  Government  at  length  determined  to 
bring  in  a  bill  which  should  provide  for  the  almost  immedi- 


Science  and  Speed. 


75 


ate  introduction  of  Mr.  Hill's  scheme,  and  for  the  abolition 
of  the  franking  system  except  in  the  case  of  official  letters 
actually  sent  on  business  directly  belonging  to  her  Majes- 
ty's service.  The  bill  declared,  as  an  introductory  step,  that 
the  charge  for  postage  should  be  at  the  rate  of  fourpence 
for  each  letter  under  half  an  ounce  in  weight,  irrespective 
of  distance,  within  the  limits  of  the  United  Kingdom. 
This,  however,  was  to  be  only  a  beginning ;  for  on  January 
loth,  1840,  the  postage  was  fixed  at  the  uniform  rate  of 
one  penny  per  letter  of  not  more  than  half  an  ounce  in 
weight.     The  introductory  measure  was  not,  of  course, 
carried  without  opposition  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington,  in  his  characteristic  way,  de- 
clared that  he  strongly  objected  to  the  scheme ;  but,  as 
the  Government  had  evidently  set  their  hearts  upon  it,  he 
recommended  the  House  of  Lords  not  to  offer  any  opposi- 
tion to  it.     In  the  House  of  Commons  it  was  opposed  by 
Sir  Robert  Peel  and  Mr.  Goulbum,  both  of  whom  strongly 
condemned  the  whole  scheme  as  likely  to  involve  the 
country  in  vast  loss  of  revenue.     The  measure,  however, 
passed  into  law.    Some  idea  of  the  effect  it  has  produced 
upon  the  postal  correspondence  of  the  country  may  be 
gathered  from  the  fact  that  in  1839,  the  last  year  of  the 
heavy  postage,  the  number  of  letters  delivered  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  was  a  little  more  than  eighty-two  mil- 
lions, which  included  some  five  millions  and  a  half  of 
franked  letters,  returning  nothing  to  the  revenues  of  the 
country;  whereas,  in  1875,  more  than  a  thousand  millions 
of  letters  were  delivered  in  the  United  Kingdom.     The 
population  during  the  same  time  has  not  nearly  doubled 
itself.     It  has  already  been  remarked  that  the  principle 
of  Sir  Rowland  Hill's  reform  has  since  been  put  into  oper- 
ation in  every  civilized  country  in  the  world.     It  may  be 
added  that  before  long  we  shall,  in  all  human  probability, 
see  an  interoceanic  postage  established  at  a  rate  as  low  as 
people  sometimes  thought  Sir  Rowland  Hill  a  madman 
for  recommending  as  applicable  to  our  inland  post.     The 


f'll 


76 


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1  I 


1^-  i 


time  is  not  far  distant  when  a  letter  will  be  carried  from 
London  to  San  Francisco,  or  to  Tokio  in  Japan,  at  a  rate 
of  charge  as  small  as  that  which  made  financiers  stare  and 
laugh  when  it  was  suggested  as  profitable  remuneration 
for  carrying  a  letter  from  London  to  the  towns  of  Sussex 
or  Hertfordshire.  The  "  Penny-post,"  let  it  be  said,  is  an 
older  institution  than  that  which  Sir  Rowland  Hill  intro- 
duced. A  penny-post  for  the  conveyance  of  letters  had 
been  set  up  in  London  so  long  ago  as  1683;  and  it  was 
adopted  or  annexed  by  the  Government  some  years  after. 
An  effort  was  even  made  to  set  up  a  halfpenny-post  in 
London,  in  opposition  to  the  official  penny-post,  in  1708; 
but  the  Government  soon  crushed  this  vexatious  and  in- 
trusive rival.  In  1738  Dr.  Johnson  writes  to  Mr.  Cave 
"  to  entreat  that  you  will  be  pleased  to  inform  me,  by  the 
penny-post,  whether  you  resolve  to  print  the  poem. "  After 
a  while  the  Government  changed  their  penny-post  to  a 
twopenny-post,  and  gradually  made  a  distinction  between 
district  and  other  postal  systems,  and  contrived  to  swell 
the  price  for  deliveries  of  all  kinds.  Long  before  even  this 
time  of  the  penny-post,  the  old  records  of  the  city  of  Bris- 
tol contain  an  account  of  the  payment  of  one  penny  for  the 
carriage  of  letters  to  London.  It  need  hardly  be  ex- 
plained, however,  that  a  penny  in  that  time,  or  even  in 
1683,  was  a  payment  of  very  different  value  indeed  from 
the  modest  sum  which  Sir  Rowland  Hill  was  successful 
in  establishing.  The  ancient  penny-post  resembled  the 
modern  penny-post  only  in  name. 


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CHAPTER  V. 


CHARTISM. 


It  cannot,  however,  be  said  that  all  the  omens  under 
which  the  new  Queen's  reign  opened  at  home  were  as  aus- 
picious as  the  coincidences  which  made  it  contemporary 
with  the  first  chapters  of  these  new  and  noble  develop- 
ments in  ihe  history  of  science  and  invention.  On  the 
contrary,  it  began  amid  many  grim  and  unpromising 
conditions  in  our  social  affairs.  The  winter  of  1837-38 
was  one  of  unusual  severity  and  distress.  There  would 
have  been  much  discontent  and  grumbling  in  any  case 
among  the  class  described  by  French  writers  as  ilaQprold- 
taire;  but  the  complaints  were  aggravated  by  a  common 
belief  that  the  young  Queen  was  wholly  under  the  in- 
fluence of  a  frivolous  and  selfish  minister,  who  occupied 
her  with  amusements  while  the  poor  were  starving.  It 
does  not  appear  that  there  was  at  any  time  the  slightest 
justification  for  such  a  belief ;  but  it  prevailed  among  the 
working-classes  and  the  poor  very  generally,  and  added  to 
the  sufferings  of  genuine  want  the  bitterness  of  imaginary 
wrong.  Popular  education  was  little  looked  after;  so  far 
as  the  State  was  concerned,  might  be  said  not  to  be  looked 
after  at  all.  The  laws  of  political  economy  were  as  yet 
only  within  the  appreciation  of  a  few,  who  were  regarded 
not  uncommonly,  because  of  their  theories,  somewhat  as 
phrenologists  or  mesmerists  might  be  looked  on  in  a  more 
enlightened  time.  Some  writers  have  made  a  g^eat  deal 
of  the  case  of  Thom  and  his  disciples  as  evidence  of  the 
extraordinary  ignorance  that  prevailed.  Thom  was  a 
broken-down  brewer,  and  in  fact  a  madman,  who  had  for 
some  time  been  going  about  in  Canterbury  and  other  parts 


78 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


It 


ii 


IM 


of  Kent  bedizened  in  fantastic  costume,  and  styling  him- 
self at  first  Sir  William  Courtenay,  of  Powderham  Castle, 
Knight  of  Malta,  King  of  Jerusalem,  king  of  the  gypsy 
races,  and  we  know  not  what  else.  He  announced  him- 
self as  a  great  political  reformer,  and  for  a  while  he  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  many  to  believe  in  and  support  him. 
He  was  afterward  confined  for  some  time  in  a  lunatic 
asylum,  and  when  he  came  out  he  presented  himself  to  the 
ignorant  peasantry  in  the  character  of  a  second  Messiah. 
He  found  many  followers  and  believers  again,  among  a 
humbler  class,  indeed,  than  those  whom  he  had  formerly 
won  over.  Much  of  his  influence  over  the  poor  Kentish 
laborers  was  due  to  his  denunciations  of  the  new  Poor 
Law,  which  was  then  popularly  hated  and  feared  with  an 
almost  insane  intensity  of  feeling.  Thom  told  them  he 
had  come  to  regenerate  the  whole  world,  and  also  to  save 
his  followers  from  the  new  Poor  Law ;  and  the  latter  an- 
nouncement commended  the  former.  He  assembled  a 
crowd  of  his  supporters,  and  undertook  to  lead  them  to  an 
attack  on  Canterbury.  With  his  own  hand  he  shot  dead  a 
policeman  who  endeavored  to  oppose  his  movements, 
exactly  as  a  savior  of  society  of  bolder  pretensions  and 
greater  success  did  at  Boulogne  not  long  after.  Two  com- 
panies of  soldiers  came  out  from  Canterbury  to  disperse  the 
rioters.  The  officer  in  command  was  shot  dead  by  Thom. 
Thorn's  followers  then  charged  the  unexpecting  soldiers 
so  fiercely  that  for  a  moment  there  was  some  confusion, 
but  the  second  company  fired  a  volley  which  stretched 
Thom  and  several  of  his  adherents  lifeless  on  the  field. 
That  was  an  end  of  the  rising.  Several  of  Thorn's  follow- 
ers were  afterward  tried  for  murder,  convicted,  and  sen- 
tenced; but  some  pity  was  felt  for  their  ignorance  and 
their  delusion,  and  they  were  not  consigned  to  death. 
Long  after  the  fall  of  their  preposterous  hero  and  saint, 
many  of  Thom's  disciples  believed  that  he  would  return 
from  the  grave  to  carry  out  the  promised  work  of  his 
mission.     All  this  was  lamentable,  but  could  hardly  be 


■>-•;    H-;|.^      *- .« 


Chartism, 


W 


regarded  as  specially  characteristic  of  the  early  years  of 
the  present  reign.  The  Thorn  delusion  was  not  niuch 
more  absurd  than  the  Tichbome  mania  of  a  later  day. 
Down  to  our  own  time  there  are  men  and  women  among 
the  Social  Democrats  of  cultured  Germany  who  still  cher- 
ish the  hope  that  their  idol  Ferdinand  Lassalle  will  come 
back  from  the  dead  to  lead  and  guide  them. 

But  there  were  political  and  social  dangers  in  the  opening 
of  the  present  reign  more  serious  than  any  that  could  have 
been  conjured  up  by  a  crazy  man  in  a  fantastic  dress. 
There  were  delusions  having  deeper  roots  and  showing  a 
more  inviting  shelter  than  any  that  a  religious  fanatic  of 
the  vulgar  type  could  cause  to  spring  up  in  our  society. 

Only  a  few  weeks  after  the  coronation  of  the  Queen  a 
great  Radical  meeting  was  held  in  Birmingham.  A  man- 
ifesto was  adopted  there  which-  afterward  came  to  be 
known  as  the  Chartist  pei.tion.  With  that  movement 
Chartism  began  to  be  one  of  the  most  disturbing  influences 
of  the  political  life  of  the  country.  It  is  a  movement 
which,  although  its  influence  may  now  be  said  to  have 
wholly  passed  away,  well  deserves  to  have  its  history  fully 
written.  For  ten  years  it  agitated  England.  It  sometimes 
seemed  to  threaten  an  actual  uprising  of  all  the  proMaire 
against  what  were  then  the  political  and  social  institutions 
of  the  country.  It  might  have  been  a  very  serious  danger 
if  the  State  had  been  involved  in  any  external  difficulties. 
It  was  backed  by  much  genuine  enthusiasm,  passion, 
and  intelligence.  It  appealed  strongly  and  naturally  to 
whatever  there  was  of  discontent  among  the  working- 
classes.  It  afforded  a  most  acceptable  and  convenient 
means  by  which  ambitious  politicians  of  the  self-seek- 
ing order  could  raise  themselves  into  temporary  im- 
portance. Its  fierce  and  fitful  flame  went  out  at  last 
under  the  influence  of  the  clear,  strong,  and  steady  light 
of  political  reform  and  education.  The  one  great  lesson 
it  teaches  is,  that  political  agitation  lives  and  is  formidable 
only  by  virtue  of  what  is  reasonable  in  its  demands. 


80 


"'story  Of  dur  Own  Tin,es 


\    ; 


r 


~,  ^  '    •'  ■""  "^n  Times. 

I  housands  of  iirnoranf  ,_  i      . 

~untry  joined  ZattT  '"""'""''  ""  ""  over  the 

were  poor,  they  were  oi  r^ort  dl'f"'  "=■'"■»■     Th^^ 
their  J.ves  were  altogether  Zr2,J^  """  """dly  paid 
heads  some  wild  idef  thaun!!'"? •,   ^""^  S"t  into  S 
them  better  food  and  wai.       i^";'* ''"'''''««'•  would  rive 
obtained,  and  that  for  tTaf , '    °^  "«'"«'•  "•"■'k  »  it  we~ 
'he  officials  would  no  ;',1,V  ''^"n  the  aristocrltstd 
^ould  really  have  satisfied  thi'.      °  P"""'''"  »ncessions 
heen  granted  in  i8,8  7h„  ,  ""*"•     "  the  Charter  h?,? 

dissatisfied  asev'e'rt   S^But  f:  "r""'  "-«  ^  »  :f 
poor  creatures  would  havt  hr     ^  ^*  discontent  of  these 
the  State  if  it  had  not  hi       «^*' "'"'  *' ''«'«  dan«r''* 
organisation  which  could  ^h'  P"''  °*  '"e  supp4?o7'° 
-n  for  the  demand/rt  i'adt^'Thr  '°™''  -"'^ood    ea 
and  practical  political  grtva  J     "°"'""  "'«'  'he  clear 
organization  melted  awfv     V        """  '^^''"  "ith,  the 
natural  and  excusable  TmaJ^"'  ^''T'^^'-  howevtr 
Pol.t.cswhen  it  helps  tosS.^I  'f  °"'^  formidable  in 
hers  of  a  crowd  which  cair  L!""^  '"'""«^"'  «"d  'he  num" 
tnade  and  is  withheld     One  S M""^  '"'''^'"  '^a'  can  te 
state-craft  is  to  declare  that  if-      /'"«^^™^' f«"«<^ies  rf 
reforms  which  would  sat  sfy  r  asonabl" V"  «"«»^ 'he 
there  are  still  unreasonable  aS^.''^'"'"'*'  because 
satisfy.     Get  the  reasonahl5        "■*  *''°'n  these  will  not 
need  not  fear  th«   '^"^sonable  men  on  your  sirf.       J 
tn  .tJ  '°*  unreasonable      Th.v  ■  ^,      "e,  and  you 

on  October  .4th,  ,839  He  snot  f  ^""'^'  «'  Edinburgh 
»nch  complacency  of  cfart!^''"  ^'  ^""^  'ongth  and  wUh 
passed  away.  Some  ten  dS/  ™  T'""'""  ^^ich  C 
formidable  outburst  of  Chartism  Zf^  T""'^  *«  »ost 
to  that  time,  and  Chartism^„„?      }  *^^  ^^^''  known  nn 

«  d.st„rbing  influence'rrg    .dlo^';?  ^«--"' 

^    ""^  *°^  "early  ten  years 


^■^-. 


Cbartism. 


81 


after.  If  Sir  John  Campbell  had  told  his  friends  and  con- 
stituents at  the  Edinburgh  dinner  that  the  influence  of 
Chartism  was  just  about  to  make  itself  really  felt,  he 
would  have  shown  himself  a  somewhat  more  acute  politi- 
cian than  we  now  understand  him  to  be.  Seldom  has  a 
public  man  setting  up  to  be  a  political  authority  made  a 
worse  hit  than  he  did  in  that  memorable  declaration. 
Campbell  was,  indeed,  only  a  clever,  shrewd  lawyer  of  the 
hard  and  narrow  class.  He  never  made  any  pretension 
to  statesmanship,  or  even  to  gre£.t  political  knowledge ;  and 
his  unfortunate  blunder  might  be  passed  over  without 
notice  were  it  not  that  it  illustrates  fairly  enough  the  man- 
ner in  which  men  of  better  information  and  judgment  than 
he  were  at  that  time  in  the  habit  of  disposing  of  all  incon- 
venient political  problems.  The  Attorney-general  wcd 
aware  that  there  had  been  a  few  riots  and  a  few  arrests,  and 
that  the  law  had  been  what  he  would  call  vindicated ;  and  as 
he  had  no  manner  of  sympathy  with  the  motives  which  could 
lead  men  to  distress  themselves  and  their  friends  about 
imaginary  charters,  he  assumed  that  there  was  an  end  of 
the  matter.  It  did  not  occur  to  him  to  ask  himself  whether 
there  might  not  be  some  underlying  causes  to  explain,  if 
not  to  excuse,  the  agitation  that  just  then  began  to  disturb 
the  country,  and  that  continued  to  disturb  it  for  so  many 
years.  Even  if  he  had  inquired  into  the  subject,  it  is  not 
likely  that  he  would  have  come  to  any  wiser  conclusion 
about  it.  The  dramatic  instinct,  if  we  may  be  allowed  to 
call  it  so,  which  enables  a  man  to  put  himself  for  the 
moment  into  the  condition  and  mood  of  men  entirely  un- 
like himself  in  feelings  and  conditions,  is  an  indispensable 
element  of  real  statesmanship ;  but  it  is  the  rarest  of  all 
gifts  among  politicians  of  tue  second  order.  If  Sir  John 
Campbell  had  turned  his  attention  to  the  Chartist  question, 
he  would  only  have  found  that  a  number  of  men,  for  the 
most  part  poor  and  ignorant,  were  complaining  of  gjriev- 
ances  where  he  could  not  for  himself  see  any  substantial 
grievances  at  all.  That  would  have  been  enough  for  him. 
Vol.  I.— 6 


t    I 


1-  i 


I 

': 


\ 


83 


/I  History  of  Our  Own  Timei- 


If  a  solid,  wealthy,  and  rising  lawyer  could  not  see  any 
cause  for  grumbling,  he  would  have  made  up  his  mind 
that  no  reasonable  persons  worthy  the  consideration  of 
sensible  legislators  would  continue  to  grumble  after  they 
had  been  told  by  those  in  authority  that  it  was  their  busi- 
ness to  keep  quiet.  But  if  he  had,  on  the  other  hand,  looked 
with  the  light  of  sympathetic  intelligence,  of  that  dramatic 
instinct  which  has  just  been  mentioned,  at  the  condition 
of  the  classes  among  whom  Chartism  was  then  rife,  he 
would  have  seen  that  it  was  not  likely  the  agitation  could 
be  put  down  by  a  few  prosecutions  and  a  few  arrests,  and 
the  censure  of  a  prosperous  Attorney-general.  He  would 
have  seen  that  Chartism  was  not  a  cause  but  a  conse- 
quence. The  intelligence  of  a  very  ordinary  man  who 
approached  the  question  in  an  impartial  mood  might 
have  seen  that  Chartism  was  the  expression  of  a  vague 
discontent  with  very  positive  grievances  and  evils. 

We  have,  in  our  time,  outlived  the  days  of  political 
abstractions.  The  catchwords  which  thrilled  our  fore- 
fathers with  emotion  on  one  side  or  the  other  fall  with 
hardly  any  meaning  on  our  ears.  We  smile  at  such 
phrases  as  "  the  rights  of  man."  We  hardly  know  what  is 
meant  by  talking  of  *'  the  people"  as  the  words  were  used 
long  ago,  when  "  the  people"  was  understood  to  mean  a  vast 
mass  of  wronged  persons  who  had  no  representation,  and 
were  oppressed  by  privilege  and  the  aristocracy.  We 
seldom  talk  of  "  liberty ;"  any  one  venturing  to  found  a 
theory  or  even  a  declamation  on  some  supposed  deprival 
of  liberty  would  soon  find  himself  in  the  awkward  position 
of  being  called  on  to  give  a  scientific  definition  of  what 
he  understood  liberty  to  be.  He  would  be  as  much  puz- 
zled as  were  certain  English  workingmen,  who,  desiring 
to  express  to  Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill  their  sympathy  with 
what  they  called  in  the  slang  of  Continental  democracy 
"  the  Revolntion,"  were  calmly  bidden  by  the  great  Liberal 
thinker  to  ask  themselves  what  they  meant  by  "  the  R.evo- 
lution,"  which  revolution,  what  revolution,  and  why  they 


I' 


^ 


Chartism. 


83 


not  see  any 
up  his  mind 
sideration  of 
le  after  they 
IS  their  busi- 
hand,  looked 
hat  dramatic 
le  condition 
hen  rife,  he 
tation  could 
arrests,  and 

He  would 
ut  a  conse- 
Y  man  who 
lood  might 
of  a  vague 
vils. 

of  political 
i  pur  fore- 
3r  fall  with 
le  at  such 
ow  what  is 
were  used 
lean  a  vast 
ation,  and 
racy.     We 

found  a 

deprival 
d  position 

of  what 
luch  puz- 

desiring 
thy  with 
emocracy 
it  Liberal 
he  Revo- 
ivhy  they 


sympathized  with  it.  But  perhaps  we  are  all  a  little  too 
apt  to  think  that  because  these  abstractions  have  no  living 
meaning  now  they  never  had  any  living  meaning  at  all. 
They  convey  no  manner  of  clear  idea  in  England  now,  but 
it  does  not  by  any  means  follow  that  they  never  conveyed 
any  such  idea.  The  phrase  which  Mr.  Mill  so  properly 
condemned  when  he  found  it  in  the  mouths  of  English 
workingmen  had  a  very  intelligible  and  distinct  meaning 
when  it  first  came  to  be  used  in  France  and  throughout 
the  Continent.  "  The  Revolution"  expressed  a  clear  real- 
ity, as  recognizable  by  the  intelligence  of  all  who  heard 
it  as  the  name  of  Free-trade  or  of  Ultramontanism  to  men 
of  our  time.  **  The  Revolution"  was  the  principle  which 
was  asserting  all  over  Europe  the  overthrow  of  the  old 
absolute  power  of  kings,  and  it  described  it  just  as  well  as 
any  word  could  do.  It  is  meaningless  in  our  day,  for  the 
very  reason  that  it  was  full  of  meaning  then.  So  it  was 
with  "  the  people,"  and  **  the  rights  of  the  peof  le,"  and  the 
"rights  of  labor,"  and  all  the  other  grandiloquent  phrases 
which  seem  to  us  so  empty  and  so  meaningless  now.  They 
are  empty  and  meaningless  at  the  present  hour ;  but  they 
have  no  application  now  chiefly  because  they  had  applica- 
tion then. 

The  Reform  Bill  of  1832  had  been  necessarily,  and  per- 
haps naturally,  a  class  measure.  It  had  done  great  things 
for  the  constitutional  system  of  England.  It  had  averted 
a  revolution  which  without  some  such  concession  would 
probably  have  been  inevitable.  It  had  settled  forever  the 
question  which  was  so  fiercely  and  so  gravely  debated 
during  the  discussions  of  the  reform  years,  whether  the 
English  Constitution  is  or  is  not  based  upon  a  system  of 
popular  representation.  To  many  at  present  it  may  seem 
hardly  credible  that  sane  men  could  have  denied  the  exist- 
ence of  the  representative  principle.  But  during  the  de- 
bates on  the  great  Reform  Bill  such  a  denial  was  the 
strong  point  of  many  of  the  leading  opponents  of  the 
measure,  including  the  Duke  of  Wellington  himself.     The 


^pl 

;■  / 

^^^^^B.  ■■» 

|| 

r 

';  ! 

H 

■   Ml 

J        i 

■ 

84 


/4  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


principle  of  the  Constitution,  it  was  soberly  argued,  is  that 
the  sovereign  invites  whatever  communities  or  interests 
he  thinks  fit  to  send  in  persons  to  Parliament  to  take 
counsel  with  him  on  the  affairs  of  the  nation.  This  idea 
was  got  rid  of  by  the  Reform  Bill.  That  bill  abolished 
fifty-six  nomination  or  rotten  boroughs,  and  took  away 
half  the  representation  from  thirty  others;  it  disposed  of 
the  seats  thus  obtained  by  giving  sixty-five  additional 
representatives  to  the  counties,  and  conferring  the  right  of 
returning  members  on  Manchester,  Leeds,  Birmingham, 
and  some  thirty-nine  large  and  prosperous  towns  which 
had  previously  had  no  representation ;  while,  as  Lord  John 
Russell  said  in  his  speech  when  he  introduced  the  bill  in 
March,  1831,"  a  ruined  mound"  sent  two  representatives  to 
Parliament ;  "  three  niches  in  a  stone  wall"  sent  two  repre- 
sentatives to  Parliament ;  "  a  park  where  no  houses  were 
to  be  seen"  sent  two  representatives  to  Parliament.  The 
bill  introduced  a  j£io  household  qualification  for  boroughs, 
and  extended  the  county  franchise  to  lease-holders  and 
copy-holders.  But  it  left  the  working-classes  almost  alto- 
gether out  of  the  franchise.  Not  merely  did  it  confer  no 
political  emancipation  on  them,  but  it  took  away  in  many 
places  the  peculiar  franchises  which  made  the  working- 
men  voters.  There  were  communities — such,  for  example, 
as  that  of  Preston,  in  Lancashire — where  the  system  of 
franchise  existing  created  something  like  universal  suf- 
frage. All  this  was  smoothed  away,  if  such  an  expression 
may  be  used,  by  the  Reform  Bill.  In  truth,  the  Reform 
Bill  broke  dovrn  the  monopoly  which  the  aristocracy  and 
landed  olastscs  had  enjoyed,  and  admitted  the  middle 
classes  to  a  share  of  the  law-making  power.  The  repre- 
sentation  was  divided  between  the  aristociacy  ai;d  the 
middle  class,  instead  of  being,  as  before,  the  exclusive 
possession  of  the  former. 

The  working-class,  in  the  opinion  of  many  of  their  ablest 
and  most  influential  representatives,  were  not  merely  left 
out  but  shouldered  out.     This  was  all  the  more  exasperat- 


k 


Chartism. 


85 


ing  because  the  excitement  and  agitation  by  the  strength  oi 
which  the  Reform  Bill  was  carried  in  the  teeth  of  so  much 
resistance  were  kept  up  by  the  workingmen.    There  was, 
besides,  at  the  time  of  the  Reform  Bill,  a  very  high  degree 
of  what  may  be  called  the  temperature  of  the  French  Rev- 
olution still  heating  the  senses  and  influencing  the  judg- 
ment even  of  the  aristocratic  leaders  of  the  movement. 
What  Richter  calls  the  "  seed-grains"  of  the  revolutionary 
doctrines  had  been  blown  abroad  so  widely  that  they  rested 
in  some  of  the  highest  as  well  as  in  most  of  the  lowliest 
places.     Some  of  the  Reform  leaders — Lord  Durham, for 
instance — were  prepared  to  go  much  farther  in  the  way  of 
Radicalism  than  at  a  later  period   Mr.   Cobden   or  Mr. 
Bright  would  have  gone.    There  was  more  than  once  a  sort 
of  appeal  to  the  workingmen  of  the  country  which,  how- 
ever differently  it  may  have  been  meant,  certainly  sounded 
in  their  ears  as  if  it  were  an  intimation  that  in  the  event 
of  the  bill  being  resisted  too  long  it  might  be  necessary 
to  try  what  the  strength  of  a  popular  uprising  could  do. 
Many  years  after,  in  the  defence  of  the  Irish  state-prison- 
ers at  Clonmel,  the  counsel  who  pleaded  their  cause  in- 
sisted that  they  had  warrant  for  their  conduct  in  certain 
proceedings  which  were  in  preparation  during  the  Reform 
agitation.     He  talked  with  undisguised  significance  of  the 
teacher  being  in  the  ministry  and  the  pupils  in  the  dock; 
and  quoted  Captain  Macheath  to  the  effect  that  if  laws 
were  made  equally  for  every  degree, there  mipfht  even  then 
be  rare  company  on  Tyburn  tree.     It  is  not  necessary  to 
attach  too  much  importance  to  assertions  of  this  kind,  or  to 
accept  them  as  sober  contributions  to  history ;  but  they  are 
very  instructive  as  a  means  of  enabling  us  to  understand 
the  feeling  of  soreness  which  remained  in  the  minds  of 
large  masses  of  the  population  when,  after  the  passing  of 
the  Reform  Bill,  they  fouud  themselves  left  out  in  the 
cold.     Rightly    or    wrongly,    they    believed   that    their 
strength  had  been  kept  in  reserve  or  in  terroretn  to  secure 
the  carrying  of  the  Reform  Bill,  and  that  when  it  was  car- 


{  I 


^ 


K  ' 


v/ 


86 


^  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


ried  they  were  immediately  thrown  over  by  those  whom 
they  had  thus  helped  to  pass  it.  Therefore,  at  the  time 
when  the  young  sovereign  ascended  the  throne,  the  work- 
ing-classes in  all  the  large  towns  were  in  a  state  of  pro- 
found disappointment  and  discontent,  almost,  indeed, 
of  disaffection.  Chartism  was  beginning  to  succeed  to  the 
Reform  agitation.  The  leaders  who  had  come  from  the 
ranks  of  the  aristocracy  had  been  discarded  or  had  with- 
drawn. In  some  cases  they  had  withdrawn  in  perfect 
good  faith,  believing  sincerely  that  they  had  done  the 
work  which  they  undertook  to  do,  and  that  that  was  all 
the  country  required.  Men  drawn  more  immediately 
from  the  working-class  itself,  or  who  had  in  some  way 
been  dropped  down  by  a  class  higher  in  the  social  scale, 
took  up  the  popular  leadership  now. 

Chartism  may  be  said  to  have  sprung  definitively  into 
existence  in  consequence  of  the  formal  declarations  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Liberal  party  in  Parliament  that  they  did 
not  intend  to  push  Reform  any  farther.  At  the  opening 
of  the  first  Parliament  of  Queen  Victoria's  reign  the  ques- 
tion was  brought  to  a  test.  A  Radical  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons  moved  as  an  amendment  to  the  ad- 
dress a  resolution  declaring  in  favor  of  the  ballot  and  of 
shorter  duration  of  Parliaments.  Only  twenty  members 
voted  for  it ;  and  Lord  John  Russell  declared  distinctly 
against  all  such  attempts  to  reopen  the  Reform  question. 
It  was  impossible  that  this  declaration  should  not  be  re- 
ceived with  disappointment  and  anger  by  great  masses  of 
the  people.  They  had  been  in  the  full  assurance  that  the 
Reform  Bill  itself  was  only  the  means  by  which  greater 
changes  were  to  be  brought  about.  Lord  John  Russell 
said  in  the  House  of  Commons  that  to  push  Reform  pny 
farther  then  would  be  a  breach  of  faith  toward  those  who 
helped  him  to  carry  it.  A  great  many  outside  Parliament 
not  unnaturally  regarded  the  refusal  to  go  any  farther  as 
a  breach  of  faith  toward  them  on  the  part  of  the  Liberal 
leaders.     Lord  John  Russell  was  right  from  his  point  of 


ii ' 


!i 


Chartism. 


87 


view.  It  would  have  been  impossible  to  carry  the  Reform 
movement  any  farther  just  then.  In  a  country  like  ours, 
where  interests  are  so  nicely  balanced,  it  must  always  hap- 
pen that  a  forward  movement  in  politics  is  followed  by  a 
certain  reaction.  The  parliamentary  leaders  in  Parlia- 
ment were  already  beginning  to  feel  the  influence  of  this 
law  of  our  political  growth.  It  would  have  been  hopeless 
to  attempt  to  get  the  upper  and  middle  classes  at  such  a 
time  to  consent  to  any  further  changes  of  considerable 
importance.  But  the  feeling  of  those  who  had  helped  so 
materially  to  bring  about  the  Reform  movement  was  at 
least  intelligible  when  they  found  that  its  effects  were  to 
stop  just  short  of  the  measures  which  alone  could  have  any 
direct  influence  on  their  political  position. 

A  conference  was  held  almost  immediately  between  a 
few  of  the  I  iberal  members  of  Parliament  who  professed 
radical  opinions  and  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  working- 
men.  At  this  conference  the  programme,  or  what  was 
always  afterward  known  as  "the  Charter,"  was  agreed 
upon  and  drawn  up.  The  name  of  "  Charter"  appears  to 
have  been  given  to  it  for  the  first  time  by  O'Connell. 
"There's  your  Charter,"  he  said  to  the  secretary  of  the 
Workingmen's  Association ;  "  agitate  for  it,  and  never  be 
content  with  anything  less. "  It  is  a  great  thing  accom- 
plished in  political  agitation  to  have  found  a  telling  name. 
A  name  is  almost  as  important  for  a  new  agitation  as  for  a 
new  novel.  The  title  of  "  The  People's  Charter"  would  of 
itself  have  launched  the  movement. 

Quietly  studied  now,  the  People's  Charter  does  not 
seem  a  very  formidable  document.  There  is  little  smell 
of  gunpowder  about  it.  Its  "  points, "  as  they  were  called, 
were  six.  Manhood  Suffrage  came  first.  It  was  then 
called  universal  suffrage,  but  it  only  meant  manhood 
suffrage,  for  the  promoters  of  the  movement  had  not  the 
slightest  idea  of  insisting  on  the  franchise  for  women. 
The  second  was  Annual  Parliaments.  Vote  by  Ballot  was 
the  third.     Abolition  of  the  Property  Qualification  (then 


I 


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and  for  many  years  after  required  for  the  election  of  a 
member  to  Parliament)  was  the  fourth.  The  Payment  of 
Members  was  the  fifth ;  and  the  Division  of  the  Country 
into  Equal  Electoral  Districts,  the  sixth  of  the  famous 
points.  Of  these  proposals  some,  it  will  be  seen,  were 
perfectly  reasonable.  Not  one  was  so  absolutely  unrea- 
sonable as  to  be  outside  the  range  of  fair  and  quiet  discus- 
sion among  practical  politicians.  Three  of  the  points — 
half,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  whole  number — have  already 
been  made  part  of  our  constitutional  system.  The  exist- 
ing franchise  may  be  virtually  regarded  as  manhood  suf- 
frage. We  have  for  years  been  voting  by  means  of  a 
written  paper  dropped  in  a  ballot-box.  The  property 
qualification  for  members  of  Parliament  could  hardly  be 
said  to  have  been  abolished.  Such  a  word  seems  far  too 
grand  and  dignified  to  describe  the  fate  that  befell  it. 
We  should  rather  say  that  it  was  extinguished  by  its  own 
absurdity  and  viciousness.  It  never  kept  out  of  Parlia- 
ment any  person  legally  disqualified,  and  it  was  the 
occasion  of  incessant  tricks  and  devices  which  would 
surely  have  been  counted  disreputable  and  disgraceful  to 
those  who  engaged  in  them,  but  that  the  injustice  and 
folly  of  the  system  generated  a  sort  of  false  public  con- 
science where  it  was  concerned,  and  made  people  think  it 
as  lawful  to  cheat  it,  as  at  one  time  the  most  respectable 
persons  in  private  life  thought  it  allowable  to  cheat  the 
revenue  and  wear  smuggled  lace  or  drink  smuggled 
brandy.  The  proposal  to  divide  the  country  into  equal 
electoral  districts  is  one  which  can  hardly  yet  be  regarded 
as  having  come  to  any  test.  But  it  is  almost  certain  that 
sooner  or  later  some  alteration  of  our  present  system  in 
that  direction  will  be  adopted.  Of  the  two  other  points 
of  the  Charter,  the  payment  of  members  may  be  regarded 
as  decidedly  objectionable ;  and  that  for  yearly  parliaments 
as  embodying  a  proposition  which  would  make  public  life 
an  almost  insufferable  nuisance  to  those  actively  concerned 
in  it.     But  neither  of  these  two  proposals  would  be  looked 


giai<iihiiiiiiiaifi   ^'^- 


Chartism. 


89 


upon  in  our  time  as  outside  the  range  of  legitimate  polit- 
ical discussion.  Indeed,  the  difficulty  any  one  engaged  in 
their  advocacy  would  find  just  now  would  be  in  getting 
any  considerable  body  of  listeners  to  take  the  slightest 
interest  in  the  argument  either  for  or  against  them. 

The  Chartists  might  be  roughly  divided  into  three 
classes — the  political  Chartists,  the  social  Chartists,  and 
the  Chartists  of  vague  discontent,  who  joined  the  move- 
ment because  they  were  wretched  and  felt  angry.     The 
first  were  the  regular  political  agitators,  who  wanted  a 
wider  popular  representation ;  the  second  were  chiefly  led 
to  the  movement  by  their  hatred  of  the  "bread-tax." 
These  two  classes  were  perfectly  clear  as  to  what  they 
wanted :  some  of  their  demands  were  just  and  reasonable ; 
none  of  them  were  without  the  sphere  of  rational  and 
peaceful  controversy.     The  disciples  of  mere  discontent 
naturally  swerved  alternately  to  the  side  of  those  leaders 
or  sections  who  talked  loudest  and  fiercest  against  the  law- 
makers and  the  constituted  authorities.     Chartism  soon 
split  itself  into  two  general  divisions — the  moral  force,  and 
the  physical  force  Chartism.     Nothing  can  be  more  unjust 
than  to  represent  the  leaders  and  promoters  of  the  move- 
ment as   mere  factious   and  self-seeking   demagogues. 
Some  of  them  were  men  of  great  ability  and  eloquence ; 
some  were  impassioned  young  poets,  drawn  from  the  class 
whom  Kingsley  has  described  in  his  **  Alton  Locke ;"  some 
were  men  of  education ;  many  were  earnest  and  devoted 
fanatics ;  and,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  all,  or  nearly  all, 
were  sincere.     Even  the  man  who  did  the  movement  most 
harm,  and  who  made  himself  most  odious  to  all  reasonable 
outsiders,  the  once  famous,  now  forgo^^ten,  Feargus  O'Con- 
nor, appears  to  have  been  sincere,  and  to  have  personally 
lost  more  than  he  gained  by  his  Chartism.     Four  or  five 
years  after  the  collapse  of  what  may  be  called  the  active 
Chartist  agitation,   a  huge  white-headed,   vacuous-eyed 
man  was  to  be  seen  of  mornings  wandering  through  the 
arcades  ol  Covent  Garden  Market,  looking  at  the  fruits 


13 

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i 


and  flowers,  occasionally  taking  up  a  flower,  smelling  at 
it,  and  putting  it  down,  with  a  smile  of  infantile  satisfac- 
tion ;  a  man  who  might  have  reminded  observers  of  Mr. 
Dick  in  Dickens' "  David  Copperfield ;"  and  this  was  the 
once  renowned,  once  dreaded  and  detested  Feargus  O'Con- 
nor. For  some  time  before  his  death  his  reason  had  wholly 
deserted  him.  Men  did  not  know  at  first  in  the  House  of 
Commons  the  meaning  of  the  odd  pranks  which  Feargus 
was  beginning  to  play  there  to  the  bewilderment  of  the 
great  assembly.  At  last  it  was  seen  that  the  fallen  leader 
of  Chartism  was  a  hopeless  madman.  It  is  hardly  to  be 
doubted  that  insanity  had  long  been  growing  on  him,  and 
that  some  at  least  of  his  political  follies  and  extravagances 
were  the  result  of  an  increasing  disorder  of  the  brain.  In 
his  day  he  had  been  the  very  model  for  a  certain  class  of 
demagogue.  He  was  of  commanding  presence,  great 
stature,  and  almost  gigantic  strength.  He  had  education ; 
he  had  mixed  in  good  society;  he  belonged  to  an  old  fam- 
ily, and,  indeed,  boasted  his  descent  from  a  line  of  Irish 
kings,  not  without  some  ground  for  the  claim.  He  had 
been  a  man  of  some  fashion  at  one  time,  and  had  led  a  life 
of  wild  dissipation  in  his  early  years.  He  had  a  kind  of 
eloquence  which  told  with  immense  power  on  a  mass  of 
half-ignorant  hearers;  and,  indeed,  men  who  had  no  man- 
ner of  liking  for  him  or  sympathy  with  his  doctrines  have 
declared  that  he  was  the  most  effective  mob  orator  they 
had  ever  heard.  He  was  ready,  if  needs  were,  to  fight 
his  way  single-handed  through  a  whole  mass  of  Tory 
opponents  at  a  contested  election.  Thomas  Cooper,  the 
venerable  poet  of  Chartism,  has  given  an  amusing  descrip- 
tion, in  his  autobiography,  of  Feargus  O'Connor,  who 
was  then  his  hero,  leaping  from  a  wagon  at  a  Nottingham 
election  into  the  midst  of  a  crowd  of  Tory  butchers,  and 
with  only  two  stout  Chartist  followers  fighting  his  way 
through  all  opposition,  "  flooring  the  butchers  like  nine- 
pins. "  "  Once, "  says  Mr.  Cooper,  "  the  Tory  lambs  fought 
off  all  who  surrounded  him  and  got  him  down,  and  my 


"       '11— a 


Chartism. 


91 


of 


heart  quaked — for  I  thought  they  would  kill  him.  But  in 
a  very  few  moments  his  red  head  emerged  again  from  the 
rough  human  billows,  and  he  was  fighting  his  way  as  be- 
fore." 

There  were  many  men  in  the  movement  of  a  nobler 
moral  nature  than  poor  huge,  wild  Feargus  O'Connor. 
There  were  men  like  Thomas  Cooper  himself,  devoted, 
impassioned,  full  of  poetic  aspiration,  and  no  scant  meas- 
ure of  poetic  inspir  tion  as  well.  Henry  Vincent  was  a 
man  of  unimpeachable  character  and  of  some  ability,  an 
effective  popular  speaker,  who  has  since  maintained  in  a 
very  unpretending  way  a  considerable  reputation.  Ernest 
Jones  was  as  sincere  and  self-sacrificing  a  man  as  ever 
joined  a  sinking  cause.  He  had  proved  his  sincerity  more 
in  deed  than  word.  His  talents  only  fell  short  of  that 
height  which  might  claim  to  be  regarded  as  genius.  His 
education  was  that  of  a  scholar  and  a  gentleman.  Many 
men  of  education  and  ability  were  drawn  into  sympathy, 
if  not  into  actual  co-operation,  with  the  Chartists  by  a 
conviction  that  some  of  their  claims  were  well-founded, 
and  that  the  grievances  of  the  working-classes,  which  were 
terrible  to  contemplate,  were  such  as  a  Parliament  better 
representing  all  classes  would  be  able  to  remedy.  Some  of 
these  men  have  since  made  for  themselves  an  honorable 
name  in  Parliament  and  out  of  it;  some  of  them  have 
risen  to  high  political  position.  It  is  necessary  to  read 
such  a  book  as  Thomas  Cooper's  autobiography  to  under- 
stand how  genuine  was  the  poetic  and  political  enthusiasm 
which  was  at  the  heart  of  the  Chartist  movement,  and  how 
bitter  was  the  suffering  which  drove  into  its  ranks  so 
many  thousands  of  stout  workingmen  who,  in  a  country 
like  England,  might  well  have  expected  to  be  able  to  live 
by  the  hard  work  they  were  only  too  willing  to  do.  One 
must  read  the  Anti-Com-law  rhymes  of  Ebenezer  Elliott 
to  understand  how  the  "  bread-tax"  became  identified  in 
the  minds  of  the  very  best  of  the  working-class,  and 
identified  justly,  with  the  system  of  political  and  economi- 


tl 


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A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


cal  legislation  which  was  undoubtedly  kept  up,  although 
not  uf  conscious  purpose,  for  the  benefit  of  a  class.  In  the 
minds  of  too  many,  the  British  Constitution  meant  hard 
work  and  half-starvation. 

A  whole  literature  of  Cha  tist  newspapers  sprang  up  to 
advocate  the  cause.  The  .Vorthern  Star^  owned  and  con- 
ducted by  Feargus  O'Connor,  was  the  most  popular  and 
influential  of  them,  but  every  great  town  had  its  Chartist 
press.  Meetings  were  held  at  which  sometimes  very 
violent  language  was  employed.  It  began  to  be  the 
practice  to  hold  torchlight  meetings  at  night,  and  many 
men  went  armed  to  these,  and  open  clamor  was  made  by 
the  wilder  of  the  Chartists  for  an  appeal  to  arms.  A  for- 
midable riot  took  place  in  Birmingham,  where  the  au- 
thorities endeavored  to  put  down  a  Chartist  meeting.  Eben- 
ezer  Elliott  and  other  sensible  sympathizers  endeavored 
to  open  the  eyes  of  the  more  extreme  Chartists  to  the  folly 
of  all  schemes  for  measures  of  violence ;  but,  for  the  time, 
the  more  violent  a  speaker  was,  the  better  chance  he  had 
of  becoming  popular.  Efforts  were  made  at  times  to  bring 
about  a  compromise  with  the  middle-class  Liberals  and 
the  Anti-Com-law  leaders ;  but  all  such  attempts  proved 
failures.  The  Chartists  would  not  give  up  their  Charter ; 
many  of  them  would  not  renounce  the  hope  of  seeing  it 
carried  by  force.  The  Government  began  to  prosecute 
some  of  the  orators  and  leaders  of  the  Charter  movement ; 
and  some  of  these  were  convicted,  imprisoned,  and  treated 
with  great  severity.  Henry  Vincent's  imprisonment  at 
Newport,  in  Wales,  was  the  occasion  of  an  attempt  at 
rescue  which  bore  a  very  close  resemblance  indeed  to  a 
scheme  of  organized  and  armed  rebellion. 

Newport  had  around  it  a  large  mining  population,  and 
the  miners  were  nearly  all  physical-force  Chartists.  It 
was  arranged  among  them  to  march  in  three  divisions  to 
a  certain  rendezvous,  and  when  they  had  formed  a  junction 
there,  which  was  to  be  two  hours  after  midnight,  to  march 
into  Newport,  attack  the  jail,  and  effect  the  release  of 


I' 


Chartism. 


93 


Vincent  and  other  piisoners.     The  attempt  was  to  be 
under  the  chief  command  of  Mr.  Frost,  a  trader  of  New- 
port, who  had  been  a  magistrate,  but  was  deprived  of  the 
commission  of  the  peace  for  violent  political  speeches— a 
man  of  respectable  character  and  conduct  up  to  that  ti»ne. 
This  was  on  November  4th,  1839.     There  was  some  mis- 
understanding and  delay,  as  almost  invariably  happens  in 
such  enterprises,  and  the  divisions  of  the  little  army  did 
not  effect  their  junction  in  time.    When  they  entered  New- 
port, they  found  the  authorities  fully  prepared  to  meet 
them.     Frost  entered  the  town  at  the  head  of  one  division 
only,  another  following  him  at  some  interval.     The  third 
was  nowhere,  as  far  as  the  object  of  the  enterprise  was 
concerned.     A  conflict  took  place  between  the  rioters  and 
the  soldiery  and  police,  and  the  rioters  were  dispersed 
with  a  loss  of  some  ten  killed  and  fifty  wounded.     In  their 
flight  they  encountered  some  of  the  other  divisions  com- 
ing up  to  the  enterprise  all  too  late.     Nothing  was  more 
remarkable  than  the  courage  shown  by  the  mayor  of  New- 
port, the  magistrates,  and  the  little  body  of  soldiers.     The 
mayor,  Mr.  Phillips,  received  two  gunshot  wounds.     Frost 
was  arrested  next  day  along  with  some  of  his  colleagues. 
They  were  tried  on  June  6th,  1840.     The  charge  against 
them  was  one  of  high-treason.     There  did  really  appear 
ground  enough  to  suppose  that  the  expedition  led  by  Frost 
was  not  merely  to  rescue  Vincent,  but  to  set  going  the  great 
rebellious  movement  of  which  the  physical -force  Chartists 
had  long  been  talking.     The  Chartists  appear  at  first  to 
have  numbered  some  ten  thousand — twenty  thousand,  in- 
deed, according  to  other  accounts — and  they  were  armed 
with  guns,  pikes,  swords,  pickaxes,  and  bludgeons.     If 
the  delay  and  misunderstanding  had  not  taken  place,  and 
they  had  arrived  at  their  rendezvous  at  the  appointed  time, 
the  attempt  might  have  led  to  very  calamitous  results. 
The  jury  found  Frost  and  two  of  his  companions,  Williams 
and  Jones,  guilty  of  high-treason,  and  they  were  sentenced 
to  death ;  the  sentence,  however,  was  commuted  to  one  of 


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94 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


transportation  foi  life.  Even  this  was  afterward  relaxed, 
and  when  some  years  had  passed  away,  and  Chartism  had 
ceased  to  be  a  disturbing  influence,  Frost  was  allowed  to 
return  to  England,  where  he  found  that  a  new  generation 
had  grown  up,  and  that  he  was  all  but  forgotten.  In  the 
mean  time  the  Corn-law  agitation  had  been  successful ;  the 
year  of  revolutions  had  passed  harmlessly  over;  Feargus 
O'Connor's  day  was  done. 

But  the  trial  and  conviction  of  Frost,  Williams,  and 
Jones  did  not  put  a  stop  to  the  Chartist  agitation.  On 
the  contrary,  that  agitation  seemed  rather  to  wax  and 
strengthen  and  grow  broader  because  of  the  attempt  at 
Newport  and  its  consequences.  Thomas  Cooper,  for  ex- 
ample, had  never  attended  a  Chartist  meeting,  nor  known 
anything  of  Chartism  beyond  what  he  read  in  the  news- 
papers, until  after  the  conviction  of  Frost  and  his  compan- 
ions. There  was  no  lack  of  what  were  called  energetic 
measures  on  the  part  of  the  Government.  The  leading 
Chartists  all  over  the  country  were  prosecuted  and  tried, 
literally  by  hundreds.  In  most  cases  they  were  convicted 
and  sentenced  to  terms  of  imprisonment.  The  imprison- 
ment served  rather  to  make  the  Chartist  leaders  popular, 
and  to  advertise  the  movement,  than  to  accomplish  any 
purpose  the  Government  had  at  heart.  They  helped  to 
make  the  Government  very  unpopular.  The  working- 
classes  grew  more  and  more  bitter  against  the  Whigs, 
who,  they  said,  had  professed  Liberalism  only  to  gain  their 
own  ends,  and  were  really  at  heart  less  Liberal  than  the 
Tories.  Now  and  then  an  imprisoned  representative  of 
the  Chartist  movement  got  to  the  end  of  his  period  of  sen- 
tence, and  came  out  of  durance.  He  was  a  hero  all  over 
again,  and  his  return  to  public  life  was  the  signal  for 
fresh  demonstrations  of  Chartism.  At  the  general  election 
of  1 84 1,  the  vast  majority  of  the  Chartists,  acting  on  the 
advice  of  some  of  their  more  extreme  leaders,  threw  all 
their  support  into  the  cause  of  the  Tories,  and  so  helped 
the  downfall  of  the  Melbourne  Administration. 


i^i' 


I'l 


Chartism. 


95 


Wide  and  almost  universal  discontent  among  the  work- 
Ing-classes  in  town  and  country  still  helped  to  swell  the 
Chartist  ranks.  The  weavers  and  stockingers  in  some  of 
the  manufacturing  towns  were  miserably  poor.  Wages 
were  low  everywhere.  In  the  agricultural  districts  the 
complaints  against  the  operation  of  the  new  Poor  Law 
were  vehement  and  passionate;  and  although  they  were 
unjust  in  principle  and  sustained  by  monstrous  exaggera- 
tions of  statement,  they  were  not  the  less  potent  as  recruit- 
ing agents  for  Chartism.  There  was  a  profound  distrust 
of  the  middle  class  and  their  leaders.  The  Anti-Corn-law 
agitation  which  was  then  springing  up,  and  which,  one 
might  have  thought,  must  find  its  most  strenuous  support 
among  the  poor  artisans  of  the  towns,  was  regarded  with 
deep  disgust  by  some  of  the  Chartists,  and  with  downright 
hostility  by  others.  A  very  temperate  orator  of  the  Char- 
tists put  the  feeling  of  himself  and  his  fellows  in  clear 
terms.  "We  do  not  object  to  the  repeal  of  the  Corn 
Laws,"  he  said ;  "  on  the  contrary,  when  we  get  the  Charter 
we  will  repeal  the  Corn  Laws  and  all  the  bad  laws.  But 
if  you  give  up  your  agitation  for  the  Charter  to  help  the 
Free-traders,  they  will  never  help  you  to  get  the  Charter. 
Don't  be  deceived  by  the  middle  classes  again!  You 
helped  them  to  get  the  Reform  Bill,  and  where  are  the  fine 
promises  they  made  you?  Don't  listen  to  their  humbug 
any  more.  Stick  to  your  Charter.  Without  your  votes 
you  are  veritable  slaves."  The  Chartists  believed  them- 
selves abandoned  by  their  natural  leaders.  All  manner 
of  socialist  doctrines  began  to  creep  in  among  them.  Wild 
and  infidel  opinions  were  proclaimed  by  many.  Thomas 
Cooper  tells  one  little  anecdote  which  he  says  fairly  illus- 
trates the  feelings  of  many  of  the  fiercer  spirits  among  the 
artisan  Chartists  in  some  of  the  towns.  He  and  his  friends 
were  holding  a  meeting  one  day  in  Leicester.  A  poor 
religious  stockinger  said : "  Let  us  be  patient  a  little  longer; 
surely  God  Almighty  will  help  us  soon. "  "  Talk  to  us  no 
more  about  thy  Goddle  Mighty,"  was  the  fierce  cry  that 


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came,  in  reply,  from  one  of  the  audience;  "there  isn't 
one!  If  there  was  one,  he  wouldn't  let  us  suffer  as  we 
do !"  About  the  same  time  a  poor  stockinger  rushed  into 
Cooper's  house,  and  throwing  himself  wildly  on  a  chair, 
exclaimed,  "  I  wish  they  would  hang  me  !  I  have  lived 
on  cold  potatoes  that  were  given  me  these  two  days,  and 
this  morning  I've  eaten  a  raw  potato  for  sheer  hunger. 
Give  tne  a  bit  of  bread  and  a  cup  of  coffee,  or  I  shall 
drop!"  Thomas  Cooper's  remark  about  this  time  is  very 
intelligible  and  simple.  It  tells  a  long,  clear  story  about 
Chartism.  "  How  fierce, "  he  says,  "  my  discourses  became 
now  in  the  Market-place  on  Sunday  evenings !  My  heart 
often  burned  with  indignation  I  knew  not  how  to  express. 
I  began,  from  sheer  sympathy,  to  feel  a  tendency  to  glide 
into  the  depraved  thinking  of  some  of  the  stronger  but 
coarser  spirits  among  the  men." 

So  the  agitation  went  on.  We  need  not  follow  it  through 
all  its  incidents.  It  took  in  some  places  the  form  of  in- 
dustrial strikes ;  in  others,  of  socialistic  assemblages.  Its 
fanaticism  had  in  many  instances  a  strong  flavor  of  noble- 
ness and  virtue.  Some  men  under  the  influence  of 
thoughtful  leaders  pledged  themselves  to  total  abstinence 
from  intoxicating  drinks,  in  the  full  belief  that  the  agita- 
tion would  never  succeed  until  the  working-classes  had 
proved  themselves,  by  their  self-control,  to  be  worthy  of 
the  gift  of  freedom.  In  other  instances,  as  has  been 
already  remarked,  the  disappointment  and  despair  of  the 
people  took  the  form  of  infidelity.  There  were  many  riots 
and  disturbances ;  none,  indeed,  of  so  seemingly  rebellious 
a  nature  as  that  of  Frost  and  his  companions,  but  many 
serious  enough  to  spread  great  alarm,  and  to  furnish  fresh 
occasion  for  Government  prosecutions  and  imprisonments. 
Some  of  the  prisoners  seem  to  have  been  really  treated 
with  a  positively  wanton  harshness  and  even  cruelty. 
Thomas  Cooper's  account  of  his  own  sufferings  in  prison 
is  painful  to  read.  It  is  not  easy  to  understand  what  good 
purpose  any  Government  could  have  supposed  the  prison 


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Chartism. 


97 


authorities  were  serving  by  the  unnecessary  degradation 
and  privation  of  men  who,  whatever  their  errors,  were 
conspicuously  and  transparently  sincere  and  honest. 

It  is  clear  that  at  that  time  the  Chartists,  who  represented 
the  bulk  of  the  artisan  class  in  most  of  the  large  towns, 
did  in  their  very  hearts  believe  that  England  was  ruled 
for  the  benefit  of  aristocrats  and  millionaires  who  were 
absolutely  indifferent  to  the  sufferings  of  the  poor.  It  is 
equally  clear  that  most  of  v;hat  are  called  the  ruling  class 
did  really  believe  the  Engiich  workingmen  who  joined 
the  Chartist  movement  to  be  a  race  of  fierce,  unmanage- 
able, and  selfish  communists  who,  if  they  were  allowed 
their  own  way  for  a  moment,  would  prove  themselves 
determined  to  overthrow  throne,  altar,  and  all  established 
securities  of  society.  An  ignorant  panic  prevailed  on  both 
sides.  England  was  indeed  divided  then,  as  Mr.  Disraeli's 
novel  described  it,  into  two  nations,  the  rich  and  the  poor, 
in  towns  at  least ;  and  each  hated  and  feared  the  other 
with  all  that  unthinking  hate  and  fear  which  hostile  nations 
are  capable  of  showing  even  amidst  all  the  influences  of 
civilization. 

Vol.  I.— 7 


P-     :,:i 


CHAPTER  VI. 


QUESTION   DE  JUPONS. 

Meanwhile  things  were  looking  ill  with  the  Melbourne 
Ministry.  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  addressing  great  meetings 
of  his  followers,  and  declaring  with  much  show  of  justice 
that  he  had  created  anew  the  Conservative  party.  The 
position  of  the  Whigs  would  in  any  case  have  been  difficult. 
Their  mandate,  to  use  the  French  phrase,  seemed  to  be 
exhausted.  They  had  no  new  thing  to  propose.  They 
came  into  power  as  reformers,  and  now  they  had  nothing 
to  oflEer  in  the  way  of  reform.  It  may  be  taken  as  a  cer- 
tainty that  in  English  politics  reaction  must  always  follow 
advance.  The  Whigs  must  just  then  have  come  in  for  the 
effects  of  reaction.  But  they  had  more  than  that  to  con- 
tend with.  In  our  own  time,  Mr.  Gladstone  had  no  sooner 
passed  his  great  measures  of  reform  than  he  began  to  ex- 
perience the  effects  of  reaction.  But  there  was  a  great 
difference  between  his  situation  and  that  of  the  Whigs 
under  Melbourne.  He  had  not  failed  to  satisfy  the  de- 
mands of  his  followers.  He  had  no  extreme  wing  of  his 
party  clamoring  against  him  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
made  use  of  their  strength  to  help  him  in  carrying  out  as 
much  of  his  programme  as  suited  his  own  coterie^  and  that 
he  had  then  deserted  them.  This  was  the  condition  of 
the  Whigs.  The  more  advanced  Liberals  and  the  whole 
body  of  the  Chartists,  and  the  working-classes  generally, 
detested  and  denounced  them.  Many  of  the  Liberals  had 
had  some  hope  while  Lord  Durham  still  seemed  likely  to 
be  a  political  power,  but  with  the  fading  of  his  influence 
they  lost  all  interest  in  the  Whig  Ministry.     On  the  other 


h 

VS. 


Question  de  Jupons. 


99 


snce 
;her 


hand,  the  support  of  O'Connell  was  a  serious  disadvantage 
to  Melbourne  and  his  party  in  England. 

But  the  Whig  ministers  were  always  adding  by  some 
mistake  or  other  to  the  difficulties  of  their  position.  The 
Jamaica  Bill  put  them  in  great  perplexity.  This  was  a 
measure  brought  in  on  April  9th,  1839,  to  make  temporary 
provision  for  the  government  of  the  isknd  of  Jamaica,  by 
setting  aside  the  House  of  Assembly  for  five  years,  and 
during  that  time  empowering  the  governor  and  council 
with  three  salaried  commissioners  to  manage  the  affairs 
of  the  colony.  In  other  words,  the  Melbourne  Ministry 
proposed  to  suspend  for  five  years  the  constitution  of 
Jamaica.  No  body  of  persons  can  be  more  awkwardly 
placed  than  a  Whig  Ministry  proposing  to  set  aside  a  con- 
stitutional government  anywhere.  Such  a  proposal  may 
be  a  necessary  measure ;  it  may  be  unavoidable ;  but  it 
always  comes  with  a  bad  grace  from  Whigs  or  Liberals, 
and  gives  their  enemies  a  handle  against  them  which  they 
cannot  fail  to  use  to  some  purpose.  What,  indeed,  it  may 
be  plausibly  asked,  is  the  raison  d'itre  of  a  Liberal  Govern- 
ment if  they  have  to  return  to  the  old  Tory  policy  of  sus- 
pended constitutions  and  absolute  law?  When  Rabagas, 
become  minister,  tells  his  master  that  the  only  way  to 
silence  discontent  is  by  the  literal  use  of  the  cannon,  the 
Prince  of  Monaco  remarks  very  naturally  that  if  that  was 
to  be  the  policy,  he  might  as  well  have  kept  to  his  old 
ministers  and  his  absolutism.  So  it  is  with  an  English 
Liberal  Ministry  advising  the  suspension  of  constitutions. 

In  the  case  of  the  Jamaica  Bill  there  was  some  excuse 
for  the  harsh  policy.  After  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the 
former  masters  in  the  island  found  it  very  hard  to  recon- 
cile themselves  to  the  new  condition  of  things.  They 
could  not  all  at  once  understand  that  their  former  slaves 
were  to  be  their  equals  before  the  law.  As  we  have  seen 
much  more  lately  in  the  Southern  States  of  America, 
after  the  civil  war  and  the  emancipation  of  the  negroes, 
there  was  still  a  pertinacious  attempt  made  by  the  planter 


r 


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class  to  regain  in  substance  the  power  they  had  had  to 
renounce  in  name.  This  was  not  to  be  justified  or  ex- 
cused ;  but,  as  human  nature  is  made,  it  was  not  unnatural. 
On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  Jamaica  negroes  were  too 
ignorant  to  understand  that  they  had  acquired  any  rights; 
others  were  a  little  too  clamorous  in  their  assertion. 
Many  a  planter  worked  his  men  and  whipped  his  women 
just  as  before  the  emancipation,  and  the  victims  did  not 
understand  that  tney  had  any  right  to  complain.  Many 
negroes,  again,  were  ignorantly  and  thoughtlessly  "  bump- 
tious," to  use  a  vulgar  expression,  in  the  assertion  of  their 
newly-found  equality.  The  imperial  governors  and  offi- 
cials were  generally  and  justly  eager  to  protect  the  negroes ; 
and  the  result  was  constant  quarrel  between  the  Jamaica 
House  of  Assembly  and  the  representatives  of  the  home 
Government.  The  Assembly  became  more  insolent  and 
offensive  erery  day.  A  bill,  very  necessary  in  itself,  was 
passed  by  the  imperial  Parliament  for  the  better  regulation 
of  prisons  in  Jamaica,  and  the  House  of  Assembly  refused 
to  submit  to  any  such  legislation.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, the  Melbourne  Ministry  proposed  the  suspension 
of  the  constitution  of  the  island.  The  measure  was 
opposed  not  only  by  Peel  and  the  Conservatives,  but  by 
many  Radicals.  It  was  argued  that  there  were  many 
courses  open  to  the  ministry  short  of  the  hi^h-handed 
proceeding  they  proposed;  and,  in  truth,  there  was  not 
that  confidence  in  the  Melbourne  Ministry  at  all  which 
would  have  enabled  them  to  obtain  from  Parliament  a 
majority  sufficient  to  carry  through  such  a  policy.  The 
ministry  was  weak  and  discredited ;  anybody  might  now 
throw  a  stone  at  it.  They  only  had  a  majority  of  five  in 
favor  of  their  measure.  This,  of  course,  was  a  virtual 
defeat.  The  ministry  acknowledged  it,  and  resigned. 
Their  defeat  was  a  humiliation ;  their  resignation  an  inev- 
itable submission;  but  they  came  back  to  office  almost 
immediately  under  conditions  that  made  the  humiliation 
more  humbling,   and  rendered  their  subsequent  career 


Question  de  Jupons. 


lOI 


more  difficult  by  far  than  their  past  struggle  for  existence 
had  been. 

The  return  of  the  Whigs  to  office — for  they  cannot  be 
said  to  have  returned  to  power — came  about  in  a  very  odd 
way.  Gulliver  ought  to  have  had  an  opportunity  of  telling 
such  a  story  to  the  king  of  the  Brobdingnagians,  in  order 
the  better  to  impress  him  with  a  clear  idea  of  the  logical 
beauty  of  constitutional  government.  It  was  an  entirely 
new  illustration  of  the  old  cherchcz  la  femme  principle,  the 
femme  in  this  case,  however,  being  altogether  a  passive 
and  innocent  cause  of  trouble.  The  famous  controversy 
known  as  the  "  Bedchamber  Question"  made  a  way  back 
for  the  Whigs  into  place.  When  Lord  Melbourne  re- 
signed, the  Queen  sent  for  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  who 
advised  her  to  apply  to  Sir  Robert  Peel,  for  the  reason  that 
the  chief  difficulties  of  a  Conservative  Government  would 
be  in  the  House  of  Commons.  The  Queen  sent  for  Peel, 
and  when  he  came,  told  him,  with  a  simple  and  girlish 
frankness,  that  she  was  sorry  to  have  to  part  with  her  late 
ministers,  of  whose  conduct  she  entirely  approved,  but 
that  she  bowed  to  constitutional  usage.  This  must  have 
been  rather  an  astonishing  beginning  to  the  grave  and 
formal  Peel ;  but  he  was  not  a  man  to  think  any  worse  of 
the  candid  young  sovereign  for  her  outspoken  ways.  The 
negotiations  went  on  very  smoothly  as  to  the  colleagues 
Peel  meant  to  recommend  to  her  Majesty,  until  he  hap- 
pened to  notice  the  composition  of  the  royal  household  as 
regarded  the  ladies  most  closely  in  attendance  on  the 
Queen.  For  example,  he  found  that  the  wife  of  Lord 
Normanby  and  the  sister  of  Lord  Morpeth  were  the  two 
ladies  in  closest  attendance  on  her  Majesty.  Now  it  has 
to  be  borne  in  mind — it  was  proclaimed  again  and  again 
during  the  negotiations — that  the  chief  difficulty  of  the 
Conservatives  would  necessarily  be  in  Ireland,  where  their 
policy  would  be  altogether  opposed  to  that  of  the  Whigs. 
Lord  Normanby  had  been  Lord-lieutenant  of  Ireland  under 
the  Whigs,  and  Lord  Morpeth,  whom  we  can  all  remember 


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as  the  amiable  and  accomplished  Lord  Carlisle  of  later 
time,  Irish  Secretary.    It  certainly  could  not  be  satisfactory 
for  Peel  to  try  to  work  a  new  Irish  policy  while  the  closest 
household  companions  of  the  Queen  were  the  wife  and 
sister  of  the  displaced  statesmen  who  directly  represented 
the  policy  he  had  to  supersede.     Had  this  point  of  view 
been  made  clear  to  the  sovereign  at  first,  it  is  hardly  pos- 
sible that  any  serious  difficulty  could  have  arisen.     The 
Queen  must  have  seen  the  obvious  reasonableness  of  Peel's 
request ;  nor  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  the  two  ladies  in 
question  could  have  desired  to  hold  their  places  under 
such  circumstances.     Rut  unluckily  some  misunderstand- 
ing took  place  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  conversations 
on  this  point.       Peel  only  desired  to  press  for  the  retire- 
ment of  the  ladies  holding  the  higher  offices ;  he  did  not 
intend  to  ask  for  any  change  affecting  a  place  lower  in 
official  rank  than  that  of  lady  of  the  bedchamber.     But 
somehow  or  other  he  conveyed  to  the  mind  of  the  Queen 
a  different  idea.     She  thought  he  meant  to  insist,  as  a 
matter  of  principle,  upon  the  removal  of  all  her  familiar 
attendants  and  household  associates.     Under  this  impres- 
sion she  consulted  Lord  John  Russell,  who  advised  her  on 
what  he  understood  to  be  the  state  of  the  facts.     On  his 
advice,  the  Queen  stated  in  reply  that  she  could  not  *'  con- 
sent to  a  course  which  she  conceives  to  be  contrary  to 
usage  and  is  repugnant  to  her  feelings. "     Sir  Robert  Peel 
held  firm  to  his  stipulation ;  and  the  chance  of  his  then 
forming  a  ministry  was  at  an  end.     Lord  Melbourne  and 
his  colleagues  had  to  be  recalled ;  and  at  a  cabinet  meet- 
ing they  adopted  a  minute  declaring  it  reasonable  "  that 
the  great  offices  of  the  Court  and  situations  in  the  house- 
hold held  by  members  of  Parliament  should  be  included 
in  the  political  arrangements  made  on  a  change  in  the 
Administration ;  but  they  are  not  of  opinion  that  a  similar 
principle  should  be  applied  or  extended  to  the  offices  held 
by  ladies  in  her  Majesty's  household." 
The  matter  was  naturally  made  the  subject  of  explana- 


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Question  de  Jupons. 


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tion  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament.  Sir  Robert  Peel  was 
undoubtedly  right  in  his  view  of  the  question,  and  if  he 
had  been  clearly  understood  the  right  could  hardly  have 
been  disputed ;  but  he  defended  his  position  in  language 
of  what  now  seems  rather  ludicrous  exaggeration.  He 
treated  this  question  de  jupons  as  if  it  were  of  the  last  impor- 
tance, not  alone  to  the  honor  of  the  ministry,  but  even  to 
the  safety  of  the  realm.  "  I  ask  you,"  he  said,  "  to  go  back 
to  other  times :  take  Pitt  or  Fox,  or  any  other  minister  of 
this  proud  country,  and  answer  for  yourselves  the  ques- 
tion, is  it  fitting  that  one  man  shall  be  the  minister, 
responsible  for  the  most  arduous  charge  that  can  fall  to 
the  lot  of  man,  and  that  the  wife  of  the  other — that  other 
his  most  formidable  political  enemy — shall,  with  his  ex- 
press consent,  hold  office  in  immediate  attendance  on  the 
sovereign?"  "Oh,  no!"  he  exclaimed,  in  an  outburst  of 
indignant  eloquence.  "  I  felt  that  it  was  impossible ;  I 
could  not  consent  to  this.  Feelings  more  powerful  than 
reasoning  told  me  that  it  was  not  for  my  own  honor  or  for 
the  public  interests  that  I  should  consent  to  be  minister 
of  England."  This  high-flown  language  seems  oddly 
out  of  place  on  the  lips  of  a  statesman  who,  of  all  his  con- 
temporaiies,  was  the  least  apt  to  indulge  in  bursts  of 
overwrought  sentiment.  Lord  Melbourne,  on  the  other 
hand,  defended  his  action  in  the  House  of  Lords  in  lan- 
guage of  equal  exaggeration.  "  I  resume  office,"  he  said, 
"  unequivocally  and  solely  for  this  reason,  that  I  will  not 
desert  my  sovereign  in  a  situation  of  difficulty  and  distress, 
especially  when  a  demand  is  made  upon  her  Majesty  with 
which  I  think  she  ought  not  to  comply — a  demand  incon- 
sistent with  her  personal  honor,  and  which,  if  acquiesced 
in,  would  render  her  reign  liable  to  all  the  changes  and 
variations  of  political  parties,  and  make  her  domestic  life 
one  constant  scene  of  unhappiness  and  discomfort. " 

In  the  country  the  incident  created  great  excitement. 
Some  Liberals  bluntly  insisted  that  it  was  not  right  in 
such  a  matter  to  consult  the  feelings  of  the  sovereign  at 


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all,  and  that  the  advice  of  the  minister,  and  his  idea  of 
what  was  for  the  good  of  the  country,  ought  alone  to  be 
considered.  On  the  other  hand,  O'Connell  burst  into 
impassioned  language  of  praise  and  delight,  as  he  dwelt 
upon  the  decision  of  the  Queen,  and  called  upon  the  Pow- 
ers above  to  bless  "  the  young  creature — that  creature  of 
only  nineteen,  as  pure  as  she  is  exalted,"  who  consulted 
not  her  head,  but  "  the  overflowing  feelings  of  her  young 
heart."  "Those  excellent  women  who  had  been  so  long 
attached  to  her,  who  had  nursed  and  tended  to  her  wants 
in  her  childhood,  who  had  watched  over  her  in  her  sick- 
ness, whose  eyes  beamed  with  delight  as  they  saw  her  in- 
creasing daily  in  beauty  and  in  loveliness — when  they 
were  threatened  to  be  forced  away  from  her — her  heart 
told  her  that  she  could  as  well  part  with  that  heart  itself 
as  with  those  whom  it  held  so  dear."  Feargus  O'Connor 
went  a  good  deal  farther,  however,  when  he  boldly  de- 
clared that  he  had  excellent  authority  for  the  statement 
that  if  the  Tories  had  got  the  young  Queen  into  their 
hands  by  the  agency  of  the  new  ladies  of  the  bedchamber, 
they  had  a  plan  for  putting  her  out  of  the  way  and  placing 
"  the  bloody  Cumberland"  on  the  throne  in  her  stead.  In 
O'Connell's  case,  no  mystery  was  made  of  the  fact  that  he 
believed  the  ladies  actually  surrounding  the  young  Queen 
to  be  friendly  to  what  he  considered  the  cause  of  Ireland ; 
and  that  he  was  satisfied  Peel  and  the  Tories  were  against  it. 
For  the  wild  talk  represented  by  the  words  of  Feargus 
O'Connor,  it  is  only  necessary  to  say  that,  frenzied  and 
foolish  as  it  must  seem  now  to  us,  and  as  it  must  even 
then  have  seemed  to  all  rational  beings,  it  had  the  firm 
acceptance  of  large  masses  of  people  throughout  the  coun- 
try, who  persisted  in  seeing  in  Peel's  pleadings  for  the 
change  of  the  bedchamber  women  the  positive  evidence  of 
an  unscrupulous  Tory  to  get  possession  of  the  Queen's 
person,  not  indeed  for  the  purpose  of  violently  altering 
the  succession,  but  in  the  hope  of  poisoning  her  mind 
against  all  Liberal  opinions. 


1/ 


vJ 


ill: 


) 


4 


Question  de  Jupons. 


105 


Lord  Brougham  was  not  likely  to  lose  so  good  an  oppor- 
tunity of  attacking  Lord  Melbourne  and  his  colleagues. 
He  insisted  that  Lord  Melbourne  had  sacrificed  Liberal 
principles  and  the  interests  of  the  country  to  the  private 
feelings  of  the  sovereign.  "I  thought,"  he  declared,  in 
a  burst  of  eloquent  passion,  "  that  we  belonged  to  a  coun- 
try in  which  the  government  by  the  Crown  and  the  wis- 
dom of  Parliamert  was  everything,  and  the  personal 
feelings  of  the  sovereign  were  absolutely  not  to  be  named 
at  the  same  time.  ...  I  little  thought  to  have  lived  to 
hear  it  said  by  the  Whigs  of  1839,  *Let  us  rally  round  the 
Queen;  nevermind  the  House  of  Commons;  nevermind 
measures;  throw  principles  to  the  dogs;  leave  pledges 
unredeemed;  but  for  God's  sake  rally  round  the  throne.' 
Little  did  I  think  the  day  would  come  when  I  should  hear 
such  language,  not  from  the  unconstitutional,  place-hunt- 
ing, king-loving  Tories,  who  thought  the  public  was  made 
for  the  king,  not  the  king  for  the  public,  but  from  the 
Whigs  themselves !  The  Jamaica  Bill,  said  to  be  a  most 
important  measure,  had  been  brought  forward.  The 
Government  staked  their  existence  upon  it.  They  were 
not  able  to  carry  it ;  they  therefore  conceived  they  had 
lost  the  confidence  of  the  House  of  Commons.  They 
thought  it  a  measure  of  paramount  necessity  then.  Is  it 
less  necessary  now?  Oh,  but  that  is  altered!  The  Ja- 
maica question  is  to  be  new-fashioned ;  principles  are  to  be 
given  up,  and  all  because  of  two  ladies  of  the  bedchamber. " 

Nothing  could  be  more  undesirable  than  the  position 
in  which  Lord  Melbourne  and  his  colleagues  had  allowed 
the  sovereign  to  place  herself.  The  more  people  in  gen- 
eral came  to  think  over  the  matter,  the  more  clearly  it 
was  seen  that  Peel  was  in  the  right,  although  he  had  not 
made  himself  understood  at  first,  and  had,  perhaps,  not 
shown  all  through  enough  of  consideration  for  the  novelty 
of  the  young  sovereign's  position,  or  for  the  difficulty  of 
finding  a  conclusive  precedent  on  such  a  question,  seeing 
that  since  the  principle  of  ministerial  responsibility  had 


io6 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


If 


11 


come  to  be  recognized  among  us  in  its  genuine  sense  there 
never  before  had  been  a  woman  on  the  throne.  But  no  one 
could  deliberately  maintain  the  position  at  first  taken  up 
by  the  Whigs ;  and,  in  point  of  fact,  they  were  soon  glad 
to  drop  it  as  quickly  and  quietly  as  possible.  The  whole 
question,  it  may  be  said  at  once,  was  afterward  settled  by 
a  sensible  compromise  which  the  Prince  Consort  suggested. 
It  was  agreed  that  on  a  change  of  ministry  the  Queen 
would  listen  to  any  representation  from  the  incoming 
Prime-minister  as  to  the  composition  of  her  household, 
and  would  arrange  for  the  retirement,  "of  their  own 
accord,"  of  any  ladies  who  were  so  closely  related  to  the 
leaders  of  Opposition  as  to  render  their  presence  incon- 
venient. The  Whigs  came  back  to  office  utterly  discred- 
ited. They  had  to  tinker  up  somehow  a  new  Jamaica  Bill. 
They  had  declared  tliat  they  could  not  remain  in  office 
unless  they  were  allowed  to  deal  in  a  certain  way  with 
Jamaica;  and  now  that  they  were  back  again  in  office, 
they  could  not  avoid  trying  to  do  something  with  the 
Jamaica  business.  They,  therefore,  introduced  a  new  bill, 
whi  h  was  a  mere  compromise  put  together  in  the  hope  of 
its  being  allowed  to  pass.  It  was  allowed  to  pass,  after  a 
fashion;  that  is,  when  the  Opposition  in  the  House  of 
Lords  had  tinkered  it  and  amended  it  at  their  pleasure. 
The  bedchamber  question,  in  fact,  had  thr'.vvn  Jamaica 
out  of  perspective.  The  unfortunate  island  must  do  the 
best  it  could  now ;  in  this  country  statesmen  had  graver 
matter  to  think  of.  Sir  Robert  Peel  could  not  govern  with 
Lady  Normanby ;  the  Whigs  would  not  govern  without 
her. 

It  does  not  seem  by  any  means  clear,  however,  that  Lord 
Melbourne  and  his  colleagues  deserved  the  savage  censure 
of  Lord  Brougham  merely  for  having  returned  to  office 
and  given  up  their  original  position  with  regard  to  the 
Jamaica  Bill.  What  else  remained  to  be  done?  If  they 
had  refused  to  come  back,  the  only  result  would  have  been 
that  Peel  must  have  become  Prime-minister,  with  a  dis- 


Question  de  Jupons. 


107 


tinct  minority  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Peel  could  not 
have  held  his  ground  there,  except  by  the  favor  and 
mercy  of  his  opponents ;  and  those  were  not  merciful  days 
in  politics.  He  would  only  have  taken  office  to  be  called 
upon  at  once  to  resign  it  by  some  adverse  vote  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  The  state  of  things  seems,  in  this 
respect,  to  be  not  unlike  that  which  existed  when  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  defeated  on  the  Irish  University  Bill  in 
1873.  Mr.  Gladstone  resigned,  or  rather  tendered  his 
resignation;  and  by  his  advice  her  Majesty  invited  Mr. 
Disraeli  to  form  a  cabinet.  Mr.  Disraeli  did  not  see  his 
way  to  imdertake  the  government  of  the  country  with  the 
existing  House  of  Commons ;  and  as  the  conditions  under 
which  he  was  willing  to  undertake  the  duty  were  not  con- 
veniently attainable,  the  negotiation  came  to  an  end.  The 
Queen  sent  again  for  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  consented  to 
resume  his  place  as  Prime-minister.  If  Lord  Melbourne 
returned  to  office  with  the  knowledge  that  he  could  not 
carry  the  Jamaica  Bill,  which  he  had  declared  to  be  neces- 
sary, Mr.  Gladstone  resumed  his  place  at  the  head  of  his 
ministry  without  the  remotest  hope  of  being  able  to  carry 
his  Irish  University  measure.  No  one  ever  found  fault 
with  Mr.  Gladstone  for  having,  under  the  circumstances, 
done  the  best  he  could,  and  consented  to  meet  the  request 
of  the  sovereign  and  the  convenience  of  the  public  service 
by  again  taking  on  himself  the  responsibility  of  govern- 
ment, although  the  measure  on  which  he  had  declared  he 
would  stake  the  existence  of  his  ministry  had  been  rejected 
by  the  House  of  Commons. 

Still,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Melbourne  Govern- 
ment were  prejudiced  in  the  public  mind  by  these  events, 
and  by  the  attacks  for  which  they  gave  so  large  an  oppor- 
tunit)'.  The  feeling  in  some  parts  of  the  country  was  still 
sentimentally  with  the  Queen.  At  many  a  dinner-table  it 
became  the  fashion  to  drink  the  health  of  her  Majesty 
with  a  punning  addition,  not  belonging  to  an  order  of  wit 
any  higher  than  that  which  in  other  days  toasted  the  King 


I 


vt 


f 


108 


/I  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


I'r 


"  over  the  water ;"  or  prayed  of  heaven  to  "  send  this  crumb 
well  down. "  The  Queen  was  toasted  as  the  sovereign  of 
spirit  who  "would  not  let  her  beUes  be  peeled."  But  tho 
ministry  were  almost  universally  believed  to  have  placed 
themselves  in  a  ridiculous  light,  and  to  have  crept  again 
into  office,  as  an  able  writer  puts  it,  "  behind  the  petticoats 
of  the  ladies  in  waiting. "  The  death  of  Lady  Flora  Hast- 
ings, which  occurred  almost  immediately,  tended  further 
to  arouse  a  feeling  of  dislike  to  the  Whigs.  This  melan- 
choly event  does  not  need  any  lengthened  comment.  A 
young  lady  who  belonged  to  the  household  of  the  Duchess 
of  Kent  fell  under  an  unfounded,  but,  in  the  circumstances, 
not  wholly  unreasonable,  suspicion.  It  was  the  classic 
story  of  Calisto,  Diana's  unhappy  nymph,  reversed.  Lady 
Flora  was  proved  to  be  innocent;  but  her  death,  immi- 
nent probably  in  any  case  from  the  disease  which  had 
fastened  on  her,  was  doubtless  hastened  by  the  humiliation 
to  which  she  had  been  subjected.  It  does  not  seem  that 
any  one  was  to  blame  in  the  matter.  The  ministry  cer- 
tainly do  not  appear  to  have  done  anything  for  which  they 
could  fairly  be  reproached.  No  one  can  be  surprised  that 
those  who  surrounded  the  Queen  and  the  Duchess  of  Kent 
should  have  taken  some  pains  to  inquire  into  the  truth  or 
falsehood  of  scandalous  rumors,  fc"^  which  there  might 
have  appeared  to  be  some  obvious  ju  ^nfication.  But  the 
whole  story  was  so  sad  and  shocking;  the  death  of  the 
poor  young  lady  followed  with  such  tragic  rapidity  upon 
the  establishment  of  her  innocence ;  the  natural  complaints 
of  her  mother  were  so  loud  and  impassioned,  that  the 
ministers  who  had  to  answer  the  mother's  appeals  were 
unavoidably  placed  in  an  invidious  and  a  painful  position. 
The  demands  of  the  Marchioness  of  Hastings  for  redress 
were  unreasonable.  They  endeavored  to  make  out  the 
existence  of  a  cruel  conspiracy  against  Lady  Flora,  and 
called  for  the  peremptory  dismissal  and  disgrace  of  the 
eminent  court  physician,  who  had  merely  performed  a 
most  painful  duty,  and  whose  report  had  been  the  especial 


I- 


•  I 


I'i.i 


1-'' 


Question  de  Jupons. 


109 


means  of  establishing;^  the  injustice  of  the  suspicions  which 
were  directed  against  her.  But  it  was  a  damaging  duty 
for  a  minister  to  have  to  write  to  the  distracted  mother,  as 
Lord  Melbcurne  found  it  necessary  to  do,  telling  her  that 
her  demani  was  "so  unprecedented  and  objectionable, 
that  even  the  respect  due  to  your  ladyship's  sex,  rank, 
family,  and  character  would  not  justify  me  in  more,  if, 
indeed,  it  authorize  so  much,  than  acknowledging  that 
letter  for  the  sole  purpose  of  acquainting  your  ladyship 
that  I  have  received  it."  The  "  Palace  scandal,"  as  it  was 
called,  became  known  shortly  before  the  dispute  about  the 
ladies  of  the  bedchamber.  The  death  of  Lady  Flora 
Hastings  happened  soon  after  it.  It  is  not  strictly  in 
logical  propriety  that  such  events,  or  their  rapid  succes- 
sion, should  tend  to  bring  into  disrepute  the  ministry,  who 
can  only  be  regarded  as  their  historical  contemporaries. 
But  the  world  must  change  a  great  deal  before  ministers 
are  no  longer  held  accountable  in  public  opinion  for  any- 
thing but  the  events  over  which  they  can  be  shown  to  have 
some  control. 


■.  i 


1 

\i 

\n 

'    -M 

*■* 

M'M 

I^Im' 

i 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    queen's    marriage. 

On  January  i6th,  1840,  the  Queen,  opening  Parliament 
in  person,  announced  her  intention  to  marry  her  cousin, 
Prince  Albert  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha — a  step  which  she 
trusted  would  be  "  conducive  to  the  interests  of  my  people 
as  well  as  to  my  own  domestic  happiness. "  In  the  discus- 
sion which  followed  in  the  House  of  Commons,  Sir  Robert 
Peel  observed  that  her  Majesty  had  "  the  singular  good 
fortune  to  be  able  to  gratify  her  private  feelings,  while 
she  performs  her  public  duty,  and  to  obtain  the  best 
guarantee  for  happiness  by  contracting  an  alliance  founded 
on  affection. "  Peel  spoke  the  simple  truth ;  it  was,  indeed, 
a  marriage  founded  on  affection.  No  marriage  contracted 
in  the  humblest  class  could  have  been  more  entirely  a 
union  of  love,  and  more  free  from  what  might  be  called 
selfish  and  worldly  considerations.  The  Queen  had  for  a 
long  time  loved  her  cousin.  He  was  nearly  her  own  age, 
the  Queen  being  the  elder  by  three  months  and  two  or 
three  days.  Francis  Charles  Augustus  Albert  Emmanuel 
was  the  full  name  of  the  young  Prince.  He  was  the  second 
son  of  Ernest,  Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld,  and  of  his 
wife  Louisa,  daughter  of  Augustus,  Duke  of  Saxe-Gotha- 
Altenberg.  Prince  Albert  was  bom  at  the  Rosenau,  one 
of  his  father's  residences,  near  Coburg,  on  August  26th, 
1819.  The  court  historian  notices  with  pardonable  com- 
placency the  '*  remarkable  coincidence" — easily  explained, 
surely — that  the  same  accoucheuse^  Madame  Siebold,  assisted 
at  the  birth  of  Prince  Albert,  and  of  the  Queen  some  three 
months  befofe,  and  that  the  Prince  was  baptized  by  the 
clergyman,  Professor  Genzler,  who  had  the  year  before 


I 


The  Queen's  Marriage, 


III 


officiated  at  the  marriage  of  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of 
Kent.  A  marriage  between  the  Princess  Victoria  and 
Prince  Albert  had  been  thought  of  as  desirable  among  the 
families  on  both  sides,  but  it  was  always  wisely  resolved 
that  nothing  should  be  said  to  the  young  Princess  on  the 
subject  unless  she  herself  showed  a  distinct  liking  for  her 
cousin.  In  1 836  Prince  Albert  was  brought  by  his  father  to 
England,  and  made  the  personal  acquaintance  of  the  Prin- 
cess, and  she  seems  at  once  to  have  been  drawn  toward 
him  in  the  manner  which  her  family  and  friends  would 
most  have  desired.  Three  years  later  the  Prince  again 
came  to  England,  and  the  Queen,  in  a  letter  to  her  uncle, 
the  King  of  the  Belgians,  wrote  of  him  in  the  warmest 
terms.  "Albert's  beauty,"  she  said,  "is  most  striking, 
and  he  is  most  amiable  and  unaffected — in  short,  very 
fascinating."  Not  many  days  after  she  wrote  to  another 
friend  and  faithful  counsellor,  the  Baron  Stockmar,  to 
say,  "  I  do  feel  so  guilty  I  know  not  how  to  begin  my  let- 
ter ;  but  I  think  the  news  it  will  contain  will  be  sufficient 
to  insure  your  forgiveness.  Albert  has  completely  won 
my  heart,  and  all  was  settled  between  us  this  morning." 
The  Queen  had  just  before  informed  Lord  Melbourne  of 
her  intention,  and  Lord  Melbourne,  it  is  needless  to  say, 
expressed  his  decided  approval.  There  was  no  one  to 
disapprove  of  such  a  marriage. 

Prince  Albert  was  a  young  man  to  win  the  heart  of  any 
girl.  He  was  singularly  handsome,  graceful,  and  gifted. 
In  princes,  as  we  know,  a  small  measure  of  beauty  and 
accomplishment  suffices  to  throw  courtiers  and  court  ladies 
into  transports  of  admiration ;  but  had  Prince  Albert  been 
the  son  of  a  farmer  or  a  butler,  he  must  have  been  ad- 
mired for  his  singular  personal  attractions.  He  had  had 
a  sound  and  a  varied  education.  He  had  been  brought  up 
as  if  he  were  to  be  a  professional  musician,  a  professional 
chemist  or  botanist,  and  a  professor  of  history  and  belles- 
lettres  and  the  fine  ar^s.  The.  scientific  and  the  literary 
were  remarkably  blended  in  his  bringing-up ;  remarkably, 


I"- 


112 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


•:4 

,  I 

i 


that  is  to  say,  for  some  half-century  ago,  when  even  in 
Germany  a  system  of  education  seldom  aimed  at  being 
MuSy  teres  atque  rotundus.  He  had  begun  to  study  the 
constitutional  history  of  States,  and  was  preparing  him- 
self to  take  an  interest  in  politics.  There  was  much  of 
the  practical  and  businesslike  about  him,  as  he  showed  in 
after-life ;  he  loved  farming,  and  took  a  deep  interest  in 
machinery  and  in  the  growth  of  industrial  science.  He 
was  a  sort  of  combination  of  the  troubadour,  the  savant^ 
and  the  man  of  b^'siness.  His  tastes  were  for  a  quiet, 
domestic,  and  unostentatious  life — a  life  of  refined  culture, 
of  happy,  calm  evenings,  of  art  and  poetry  and  genial 
communion  with  Nature.  He  was  made  happy  by  the 
songs  of  birds,  and  delighted  in  sitting  alone  and  playing 
the  organ.  But  there  was  in  him,  too,  a  great  deal  of  the 
political  philosopher.  He  loved  to  hear  political  and  other 
questions  well  argued  out,  and  once  observed  that  a  false 
argument  jarred  on  his  nerves  as  much  as  a  false  note  in 
music.  He  seems  to  have  had  from  his  youth  an  all-per- 
vading sense  of  duty.  So  far  as  we  can  guess,  he  was 
almost  absolutely  free  from  the  ordinary  follies,  not  to  say 
sins,  of  youth.  Young  as  he  was  when  he  married  the 
Queen,  he  devoted  himself  at  once  to  what  he  conscien- 
tiously believed  to  be  the  duties  of  his  station  with  a  self- 
control  and  self-devotion  rare  even  among  the  aged,  and 
almost  unknown  in  youth.  He  gave  up  every  habit, 
however  familiar  and  dear,  every  predilection,  no  matter 
how  sweet,  every  indulgence  of  sentiment  or  amusement 
that  in  any  way  threatened  to  interfere  with  the  steadfast 
performance  of  the  part  he  had  assigned  to  himself.  No 
man  ever  devoted  himself  more  faithfully  to  the  difficult 
duties  of  a  high  and  a  new  situation,  or  kept  more  strictly 
to  his  resolve.  It  was  no  task  to  him  to  be  a  tender  hus- 
band and  a  loving  father.  This  was  a  part  of  his  sweet, 
pure,  and  affectionate  nature.  It  may  well  be  doubted 
whether  any  other  queen  ever  had  a  married  life  so  happy 
as  that  of  Queen  Victoria. 


The  Queen's  Marriage. 


"3 


m 


The  marriage  of  the  Queen  and  the  Prince  took  place 
on  February  loth,  1840.    The  reception  given  by  the  people 
in  general  to  the  Prince  on  his  landing  in  England  a  few 
days  before  the  ceremony,  and  on  the  day  of  the  marriage, 
was  cordial,  and  even  enthusiastic.     But  it  is  not  certain 
whether  there  was  a  very  cordial  feeling  to  the  Prince 
among  all  classes  of  politicians.     A  rumor  of  the  most 
absurd  kind  had  got  abroad  in  certain  circles  that  the 
young  Albert  was  not  a  Protestant — that  he  was,  in  fact, 
a  member  of  the  Church  of  Rome.     In  a  different  circle 
the  belief  was  curiously  cherished  that  the  Prince  was  a 
free-thinker  in  matters  of  religion,  and  a  radical  in  poli- 
tics.     Somewhat  unfortunately,   the  declaration  of  the 
intended  marriage  to  the  privy  council  did  not  mention 
the  fact  that  Albert  was  a  Protestant  Prince.     The  cabinet 
no  doubt  thought  that  the  leaders  of  public  opinion  on  all 
sides  of  politics  would  have  had  historical  knowledge 
among  them  to  teach  them  that  Prince  Albert  belonged  to 
that  branch  of  the  Saxon  family  which  since  the  Reforma- 
tion had  been  conspicuously  Protestant.     "  There  has  not, " 
Prince  Albert  himself  wrote  to  the  Queen  on  December 
7th,  1839,  "been   a  single  Catholic  princess  introduced 
into  the  Coburg  family  since  the  appearance  of  Luther  in 
1 5  2 1 .    Moreover,  the  Elector  Frederick  the  Wise  of  Saxony 
was  the  very  first  Protestant  that  ever  lived. "     No  doubt 
the  ministry  thought   also  that  the  constitutional  rule 
which  forbids  an   English  sovereign  to  marry  with  a 
Roman  Catholic  under  penalty  of  forfeiting  the  crown, 
would  be  regarded  as  a  sufficient  guarantee  that  when  they 
announced  the  Queen's  approaching  marriage  it  must  be 
a  marriage  with  a  Protestant.     All  this  assumption,  how- 
ever reasonable  and  natural,  did  not  find  warrant  in  the 
events  that  actually  took  place.     It  would  have  been  bet- 
ter, of  course,  if  the  Government  had  assumed  that  Parlia- 
ment and  the  public  generally  knew  nothing  about  the 
Prince  and  his  ancestry,  or  the  constitutional  penalties  for  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Family  marrying  a  Catholic,  and  had 
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formally  announced  that  the  choice  of  Queen  Victoria  had 
happily  fallen  on  a  Protestant.  The  wise  and  foreseeing 
Leopold,  King  of  the  Belgians,  had  recommended  that  the 
fact  should  be  specifically  mentioned ;  but  it  was,  perhaps, 
apart  of  Lord  Melbourne's  indolent  good-nature  to  take  it 
for  granted  that  people  generally  would  be  calm  and  rea- 
sonable, and  that  all  would  go  right  without  interruption 
or  cavil.  He  therefore  acted  on  the  assumption  that  any 
formal  mention  of  Prince  Albert 'o  Protestantism  would 
be  superfluous;  and  neither  in  the  declaration  to  the  privy 
council  nor  in  the  announcement  to  Parliament  was  a  word 
said  upon  the  subject.  The  result  was  that  in  the  debate 
on  the  address  in  the  House  of  Lords  a  somewhat  un- 
seemly altercation  took  place,  an  altercation  the  more  to 
be  regretted  because  it  might  have  been  so  easily  spared. 
The  question  was  bluntly  raised  by  no  less  a  person  than 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  whether  the  future  husband  of 
the  Queen  was  or  was  not  a  Protestant.  The  Duke  actually 
charged  the  ministry  with  having  purposely  left  out  the 
word  "  Protestant"  in  the  announcements,  in  order  that 
they  might  not  offend  their  Irish  and  Catholic  supporters, 
and  by  the  very  charge  did  much  to  strengthen  the  popu- 
lar feeling  against  the  statesmen  who  were  supposed  to 
be  kept  in  office  by  virtue  of  the  patronage  of  O'Connell. 
The  Duke  moved  that  the  word  ''  Protestant"  be  inserted 
in  the  congratulatory  address  to  the  Queen,  and  he  carried 
his  point,  although  Lord  Melbourne  held  to  the  opinion 
that  the  word  was  unnecessary  in  describing  a  Prince  who 
was  not  only  a  Protestant,  but  descended  from  the  most 
Protestant  family  in  Europe.  The  lack  of  judgment  and 
tact  on  the  part  of  the  ministry  was  never  more  clearly 
shown  than  in  the  original  omission  of  the  word. 

Another  disagreeable  occurrence  was  the  discussion  that 
took  place  when  the  bill  for  the  naturalization  of  the 
Prince  was  brought  before  the  House  of  Lords.  The  bill 
in  its  title  merely  set  out  the  proposal  to  provide  for  the 
naturalization  of  the  Prince ;  but  it  contained  a  clause  to 


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"5 


give  him  precedence  for  life  "  next  after  her  Majesty,  in 
Parliament  or  elsewhere,  as  her  Majesty  might  think 
proper."  A  great  deal  of  objection  was  raised  by  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  and  Lord  Brougham  to  this  clause 
on  its  own  merits;  but,  as  was  natural,  the  objections 
were  infinitely  aggravated  by  the  singular  want  of  judg- 
ment, and  even  of  common  propriety,  which  could  intro- 
duce a  clause  .  Dnferring  on  the  sovereign  powers  so  large 
and  so  new  into  a  mere  naturalization  bill,  without  any 
previous  notice  to  Parliament.  The  matter  was  ultimately 
settled  by  allowing  the  bill  to  remain  a  simple  naturaliza- 
tion measure,  and  leaving  the  question  of  precedence  to 
be  dealt  with  by  Royal  prerogative.  Both  the  great 
political  parties  concurred,  without  further  difficulty,  in 
an  arrangement  by  which  it  was  provided  in  letters  patent 
that  the  Prince  should  thenceforth  upon  all  occasions,  and 
in  all  meetings,  except  when  otherwise  provided  by  Act 
of  Parliament,  have  precedence  next  to  the  Queen.  There 
never  would  have  been  any  difficulty  in  the  matter  if  the 
ministry  had  acted  with  any  discretion ;  but  it  would  be 
absurd  to  expect  that  a  great  nation,  whose  constitutional 
system  is  built  up  of  precedents,  should  agree  at  once  and 
without  demui  to  every  new  arrangement  which  it  might 
seem  convenient  to  a  ministry  to  make  in  a  hurry.  Yet 
another  source  of  dissatisfaction  to  the  palace  and  the 
people  was  created  by  the  manner  in  which  the  ministry 
took  upon  themselves  to  bring  forward  the  proposition  for 
the  settlement  of  an  annuity  on  the  Prince.  In  former 
cases — that,  for  example,  of  Queen  Charlotte,  Queen 
Adelaide,  and  Prince  Leopold  on  his  marriage  with  the 
Princess  Charlotte — the  annuity  granted  had  been  ;^5 0,000. 
It  so  happened,  however,  that  the  settlement  to  be  made 
on  Prince  Albert  came  in  times  of  great  industrial  and 
commercial  distress.  The  days  had  gone  by  when  econ- 
omy in  the  House  of  Commons  was  looked  upon  as  an 
ignoble  principle,  and  when  loyalty  to  the  sovereign  was 
believed  to  bind  members  of  Parliament  to  grant,  without 


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a  murmur  of  discussion,  any  sums  that  might  be  asked  by 
the  minister  in  the  sovereign's  name,  Parliament  was 
beginning  to  feel  more  thoroughly  its  responsibility  as  the 
guardian  of  the  nation's  resources,  and  it  was  no  longer 
thought  a  fine  thing  to  give  away  the  money  of  the  tax- 
payer with  magnanimous  indifference.  It  was,  therefore, 
absurd  on  the  part  of  the  ministry  to  suppose  that  because 
great  sums  of  money  had  been  voted  without  question  on 
former  occasions,  they  would  be  voted  without  question 
now.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  whole  matter  might 
have  been  settled  without  controversy  if  the  ministry  had 
shown  any  judgment  whatever  in  their  conduct  of  the 
business.  In  our  day  the  ministry  would  at  once  have 
consulted  the  leaders  of  the  Opposition.  In  all  matters 
where  the  grant  of  money  to  any  one  connected  with  the 
sovereign  is  concerned,  it  is  now  understood  that  the  gift 
shall  come  with  the  full  concurrence  of  both  parties  in 
Parliament.  The  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons  would 
probably,  by  arrangement,  propose  the  grant,  and  the 
leader  of  the  Opposition  would  second  it.  In  the  case  of 
the  annuity  to  Prince  Albert,  the  ministry  had  the  almost 
incredible  folly  to  bring  forward  their  proposal  without 
having  invited  in  any  way  the  concurrence  of  the  Opposi- 
tion. They  introduced  the  proposal  without  discretion; 
they  conducted  the  discussion  on  it  without  temper. 
They  answered  the  most  reasonable  objections  with  impu- 
tations of  want  of  loyalty;  and  they  ga-ve  some  excuse  for 
the  suspicion  that  they  wished  to  provoke  the  Opposition 
into  some  expression  that  might  make  them  odious  to  the 
Queen  and  the  Prince.  Mr.  Hume,  the  economist,  pro- 
posed that  the  annuity  be  reduced  from  ^^5 0,000  to  ;^2i,- 
000.  This  was  negatived.  Thereupon  Colonel  Sibthorp, 
a  once  famous  Torv  fanatic  of  the  most  eccentric  manners 
and  opinions,  proposed  that  the  sum  be  ;^3o,ooo,  and  he 
received  the  support  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  other  eminent 
members  of  the  Opposition ;  and  the  amendment  was  car- 
ried. 


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<ii 


These  were  not  auspicious  incidents  to  prelude  the 
Royal  marriage.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  for  a  time 
the  Queen,  still  more  than  the  Prince,  felt  their  influence 
keenly.  The  Prince  showed  remarkable  good  sense  and 
appreciation  of  the  condition  of  political  arrangements  in 
England,  and  readily  comprehended  that  there  was  nothing 
personal  to  himself  in  any  objections  which  the  House  of 
Commons  might  have  made  to  the  proposals  of  the  minis- 
try. The  question  of  precedence  was  very  easily  settled 
when  it  came  to  be  discussed  in  reasonable  fashion ;  al- 
though it  was  not  until  many  years  after  (1857)  that  the 
title  of  Prince  Consort  was  given  to  the  husband  of  the 
Queen. 

A  few  months  after  the  marriage,  a  bill  was  passed 
providing    for   a   regency  in  the  possible  event  of  the 
death  of  the  Queen,  leaving  issue.     With  the  entire  con- 
currence of  the  leaders  of  the  Opposition,  who  were  con- 
sulted this  time,  Prince  Albert  was  named   Regent,  fol- 
lowing the  precedent  which   had   been  adopted   in  the 
instance  of  the  Princess  Charlotte  and   Prince  Leopold. 
The  Duke  of  Sussex,  uncle  of  the  Queen,  alone  dissented 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  recorded  his  protest  against 
the  proposal.       The  passing  of  this  bill  was  naturally 
regarded  as  of  much  importance  to  Prince  Albert.      It 
gave  him  to  some  extent  the  status  in  the  country  which 
he  had  not  had  before.     It  also  proved  that  the  Prince 
himself  had  risen  in  the  estimation  of  the  Tory  party 
during  the  few  months  that  elapsed  since  the  debates  on 
the  annuity  and  the  question  of  precedence.     No  one  could 
have  starte*-.  with  a  more  resolute  determination  to  stand 
clear  of  party  politics  than  Prince  Albert.     He  accepted 
at  once  his  position  as  the  husband  of  the  Queen  of  a  con- 
stitutional country.     His  own  idea  of  his  duty  was  that 
he  should  be  the  private  secretary  and  unofficial  counsel- 
lor of  the  Queen.     To  this  purpose  he  devoted  himself 
unswervingly.     Outside  that  part  of  his  duties,  he  consti- 
tuted himself  a  sort  of  minister  without  portfolio  of  art  and 


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education.  He  took  an  interest,  and  often  a  leading  part, 
in  all  projects  and  movements  relating  to  the  spread  of 
education,  the  culture  of  art,  and  the  promotion  of  indus- 
trial science.  Yet  it  was  long  before  he  was  thoroughly 
understood  by  the  country.  It  was  long  before  he  became 
in  any  degree  popular;  and  it  may  be  doubted  whether  he 
ever  was  thoroughly  and  generally  popular.  Not,  per- 
haps, until  his  untimely  death  did  the  country  find  out 
how  entirely  disinterested  and  faithful  his  life  had  been, 
and  how  he  had  made  the  discharge  of  duty  his  business 
and  his  task.  His  character  was  one  which  is  liable  to  be 
regarded  by  ordinary  observers  as  possessing  none  but 
negative  virtues.  He  was  thought  to  be  cold,  formal,  and 
apathetic.  His  manners  were  somewhat  shy  and  con- 
strained, except  when  he  was  in  the  company  of  those  he 
loved,  and  then  he  commonly  relaxed  into  a  kind  of  boyish 
freedom  and  joyousness.  But  to  the  public  in  general  he 
seemed  formal  and  chilling.  It  is  not  only  Mr.  Pendennis 
who  conceals  his  gentlen  'ss  under  a  shy  and  pompous 
demeanor.  With  all  his  ability,  his  anxiety  to  learn,  his 
capacity  for  patient  study,  and  his  willingness  to  welcome 
new  ideas,  he  never,  perhaps,  quite  understood  the  genius 
of  the  English  political  system.  His  faithful  friend  and 
counsellor,  Baron  Stockmar,  was  not  the  man  best  calcu- 
lated to  set  him  right  on  this  subject.  Both  were  far  too 
eager  to  find  in  the  English  Constitution  a  piece  of 
s}''mmetrical  mechanism,  or  to  treat  it  as  a  written  code 
from  which  one  might  take  extracts  or  construct  summa- 
ries for  constant  reference  and  guidance.  But  this  was  not, 
in  the  beginning,  the  cause  of  any  coldness  toward  the 
Prince  on  the  part  of  the  English  public.  Prince  Albert 
had  not  the  ways  of  an  Englishman;  and  the  tendency  of 
Englishmen,  then  as  now,  was  to  assume  that  to  have 
manners  other  than  those  of  an  Englishman  was  to  be  so 
far  unworthy  of  confidence.  He  was  not  made  to  shine 
in  commonplace  society.  He  could  talk  admirably  about 
something,  but  he  had  not  the  gift  of  talking  about  nothing, 


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119 


and  probably  would  not  have  cared  much  to  cultivate  such 
a  faculty.  He  was  fond  of  suggesting  small  innovations 
and  improvements  in  established  systems,  to  the  annoyance 
of  men  with  set  ideas,  who  liked  their  own  ways  best. 
Thus  it  happened  that  he  remained  for  many  years,  if  not 
exactly  unappreciated,  yet  not  thoroughly  appreciated,  and 
that  a  considerable  and  very  influential  section  of  society 
was  always  ready  to  cavil  at  what  he  said,  and  find  motive 
for  suspicion  in  most  things  t^  ^  he  did.  Perhaps  he  was 
best  understood  and  most  c^  .ally  appreciated  among  the 
poorer  classes  of  his  wife's  subjects.  He  found  also  more 
cordial  approval  generally  among  the  Radicals  than  among 
the  Tories,  or  even  the  Whigs. 

One  reform  which  Prince  Albert  worked  earnestly  to 
bring  about  was  the  abolition  of  duelling  in  the  army,  and 
the  substitution  of  some  system  of  courts  of  honorable  arbi- 
tration to  supersede  the  barbaric  recourse  to  the  decision  of 
weapons.  He  did  not  succeed  in  having  his  courts  of 
honor  established.  There  was  something  too  fanciful  in 
the  scheme  to  attract  the  authorities  of  our  two  services ; 
and  there  were  undoubtedly  many  practical  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  making  such  a  system  effective.  But  he  suc- 
ceeded so  far  that  he  induced  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and 
the  heads  of  the  services  to  tvrn  their  attention  very 
seriously  to  the  subject,  and  to  use  all  the  influence  in 
their  power  for  the  purpose  of  discouraging  and  discredit- 
ing the  odious  practice  of  the  duel.  It  is  carrying  courtly 
politeness  too  far  to  attribute  the  total  disappearance  of 
the  duelling  system,  as  one  biographer  seems  inclined  to 
do,  to  the  personal  efforts  of  Prince  Albert.  It  is  enough 
to  his  honor  that  he  did  his  best,  and  that  the  best  was  a 
substantial  contribution  toward  so  great  an  object.  But 
nothing  can  testify  more  strikingly  to  the  rapid  growth  of 
a  genuine  civilization  in  Queen  Victoria's  reign  than  the 
utter  discontinuance  of  the  duelling  system.  When  the 
Queen  came  to  the  throne,  and  for  years  after,  it  was  still 
in  full  force.     The  duel  plays  a  conspicuous  part  in  the 


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fiction  and  the  drama  of  the  reign's  earlier  years.  It  was 
a  common  incident  of  all  political  controversies.  It  was 
an  episode  of  most  contested  elections.  It  was  often  re- 
sorted to  for  the  purpose  of  deciding  the  right  or  wrong  of 
a  half-drunken  quarrel  over  a  card-table.  It  formed  as 
common  a  theme  of  gossip  as  an  elopement  or  a  bank- 
ruptcy. Most  of  the  eminent  statesmen  who  were  prom- 
inent in  the  earlier  part  of  the  Queen's  reign  had  fought 
duels.  Peel  and  O'Connell  had  made  arrangements  for  a 
"meeting."  Mr.  Disraeli  had  challenged  O'Connell  or 
any  of  the  sons  of  O'Connell.  The  great  agitator  himself 
had  killed  his  man  in  a  duel.  Mr.  Roebuck  had  gone  out; 
Mr.  Cobden,  at  a  much  later  period,  had  been  visited  with  a 
challenge,  and  had  had  the  good  sense  and  the  moral  cour- 
age to  laugh  at  it.  At  the  present  hour  a  duel  in  England 
would  seem  as  absurd  and  barbarous  an  anachronism  as 
an  ordeal  by  touch  or  a  witch-burning.  Many  years  have 
passed  since  a  duel  was  last  talked  of  in  Parliament;  and 
then  it  was  only  the  subject  of  a  reprobation  that  had 
some  work  to  do  to  keep  its  countenance  while  adminis- 
tering the  proper  rebuke.  But  it  was  not  the  influence  of 
any  one  man,  or  even  any  class  of  men,  that  brought 
about  in  so  short  a  time  this  striking  change  in  the  tone  of 
public  feeling  and  morality.  The  change  was  part  of  the 
growth  of  education  and  of  civilization ;  of  the  strengthen- 
ing and  broadening  influence  of  the  press,  the  platform, 
the  cLeap  book,  the  pulpit,  and  the  less  restricted  inter- 
course of  classes. 

This  is,  perhaps,  as  suitable  a  place  as  any  other  to 
introduce  some  notice  of  the  attempts  that  were  made  from 
time  to  time  upon  the  life  of  the  Queen.  It  is  proper  to 
say  something  of  them,  although  not  one  possesvsed  the 
slightest  political  importance,  or  could  be  said  to  illustrate 
anything  more  than  sheer  lunacy,  or  that  morbid  vanity 
and  thirst  for  notoriety  that  is  nearly  akin  to  genuine 
madness.  The  first  attempt  was  made  on  June  loth,  1840, 
by  Edward  Oxford,  a  pot-boy  of  seventeen,  who  fired  two 


The  Queen's  Marriage. 


12\ 


shots  at  the  Queen  as  she  was  driving  up  Constitution  Hill 
with  Prince  Albert.  Oxford  fired  both  shots  deliberately 
enough,  but  happily  missed  in  each  case.  He  proved  to 
have  been  an  absurd  creature,  half  crazy  with  a  longing 
to  consider  himself  a  political  prisoner  and  to  be  talked  of. 
When  he  was  tried,  the  jury  pronounced  him  insane,  and 
he  was  ordered  to  be  kept  in  a  lunatic  asylum  during  her 
Majesty's  pleasure.  The  trial  completely  dissipated  some 
wild  alarms  that  were  felt,  founded  chiefly  on  absurd 
papers  in  Oxford's  possession,  about  a  tremendous  secret 
society  called  "  Young  England,"  having  among  its  other 
objects  the  assassination  of  royal  personages.  It  is  not  an 
uninteresting  illustration  of  the  condition  of  public  feeling 
that  some  of  the  Irish  Catholic  papers  in  seeming  good 
faith  denounced  Oxford  as  an  agent  of  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland and  the  Orangemen,  and  declared  that  the  object 
was  to  assassinate  the  Queen  and  put  the  Duke  on  the 
throne.  The  trial  showed  that  Oxford  was  the  agent  of 
nobody,  and  was  impelled  by  nothing  but  his  own  crack- 
brained  love  of  notoriety.  The  finding  of  the  jury  was 
evidently  something  of  a  compromise,  for  it  is  very  doubt- 
ful whether  the  boy  was  insane  in  the  medical  sense,  and 
whether  he  was  fairly  to  be  held  irresponsible  for  his 
actions.  But  it  was  felt,  perhaps,  that  the  wisest  course 
was  to  treat  him  as  a  madman ;  and  the  result  did  not 
prove  unsatisfactory.  Mr.  Theodore  Martin,  in  his  "  Life 
of  the  Prince  Consort,"  expresses  a  different  opinion.  He 
thinks  it  would  have  been  well  if  Oxford  had  been  dealt 
with  as  guilty  in  the  ordinary  way.  "  The  best  commen- 
tary," he  says,  "on  the  lenity  thus  shown  was  pronounced 
by  Oxford  himself,  on  being  told  of  the  similar  attempts 
of  Francis  and  Bean  in  1842,  when  he  declared  thav  if  he 
had  been  hanged  there  would  have  been  no  more  shooting 
at  the  Queen."  It  may  be  reasonably  doubted  whether 
the  authority  of  Oxford,  as  to  the  general  influence  of  crim- 
inal legislation,  is  very  valuable.  Against  the  philosophic 
opinion  of  the  half-crazy  young  pot-boy,  on  which  Mr. 


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Martin  places  so  much  reliance,  may  be  set  the  fact  that 
in  other  countries  where  attempts  on  the  life  of  the  sover- 
eign have  been  punished  by  the  stem  award  of  death,  it 
has  not  been  found  that  the  execution  of  one  fanatic  was 
a  safe  protection  against  the  murderous  fanaticism  of  an- 
other. 

On  May  30th,  1843,  a  man  named  John  Francis,  son  of 
a  machinist  in  Drury  Lane,  fired  a  pistol  at  the  Queen  as 
she  was  driving  down  Constitution  Hill,  on  the  very  spot 
where  Oxford's  attempt  was  made.  This  was  a  somewhat 
serious  attempt,  for  Francis  was  not  more  than  a  few  feet 
from  the  carriage,  which  fortunately  was  driving  at  a  very 
rapid  rate.  The  Queen  showed  great  composure.  She 
was  in  some  measure  prepared  for  the  attempt,  for  it 
seems  certain  that  the  same  man  had  on  the  previous  even- 
ing presented  a  pistol  at  the  royal  carriage,  although  he 
did  not  then  fire  it.  Francis  was  arrested  and  put  on  trial. 
He  was  only  twenty-two  years  of  age,  and  although  at  first 
he  endeavored  to  brazen  it  out  and  put  on  a  sort  of  melo- 
dramatic regicide  aspect,  yet  when  the  sentence  of  death 
for  high-treason  was  passed  on  him  he  fell  into  a  swoon 
and  was  carried  insensible  from  the  court.  The  sentence 
was  not  carried  into  effect.  It  was  not  certain  whether  the 
pistol  was  loaded  at  all,  and  whether  the  whole  perform- 
ance was  not  a  mere  piece  of  brutal  play-acting  done  out 
of  a  longing  to  be  notorious.  Her  Majesty  herself  was 
anxious  that  the  death-sentence  should  not  be  carried  into 
effect,  and  it  was  finally  commuted  to  one  of  transporta- 
tion for  life.  The  very  day  after  this  mitigation  of  pun- 
ishment became  publicly  known,  another  attempt  was 
made  by  a  hunchbacked  lad  named  Bean.  As  the  Queen 
was  passing  from  Buckingham  Palace  to  the  Chapel  Royal, 
Bean  presented  a  pistol  at  her  carriage,  but  did  not  succeed 
in  firing  it  before  his  hand  was  seized  by  a  prompt  and 
courageous  boy  who  was  standing  near.  The  pistol  was 
found  to  be  loaded  with  powder,  paper  closely  rammed 
down,  and  some  scraps  of  a  clay  pipe.     It  may  be  asked 


h ' 


The  Queen's  Marriage. 


laj 


whether  the  argument  of  Mr.  Martin  is  not  fully  borne  out 
by  this  occurrence,  and  whether  the  fact  of  Bean's  attempt 
having  been  made  on  the  day  after  the  commutation  of 
the  capital  sentence  in  the  case  of  Francis  is  not  evidence 
that  the  leniency  in  the  former  instance  was  the  cause  of 
the  attempt  made  in  the  latter.     But  it  was  made  clear, 
and  the  fact  is  recorded  on  the  authority  of  Prince  Albert 
himself,  that  Bean  had  announced  his  determination  to 
make  the  attempt  several  days  before  the  sentence  of 
Francis  was  commuted,  and  while  Francis  was  actually 
lying  under  sentence  of  death.     With  regard  to  Francis 
himself,  the  Prince  was  clearly  of  opinion  that  to  carry 
out  the  capital  sentence  would  have  been  nothing  less  than 
a  judicial  murder,  as  it  is  essential  that  the  act  should  be 
committed  with  intent  to  kill  or  wound,  and  in  Francis's 
case,  to  all  ap  earance,  this  was  not  the  fact,  or  at  least  it 
was  open  to  grave  doubt.     In  this  calm  and  wise  way  did 
the  husband  of  the  Queen,  who  had  always  shared  with 
her  whatever  of  danger  there  might  be  in  the  attempts, 
argue  as  to  the  manner  in  which  they  ought  to  be  dealt 
with.     The   ambition   of  most  or  all  of  the  miscreants 
who  thus  disturbed  the  Queen  and  the  country  was  that 
of  the  mountebank  rather  than  of  the  assassin.     The 
Queen  herself  showed  how  thoroughly  she  understood  the 
significance  of  all  that  had  happened  when  she  declared, 
according  to  Mr.  Martin,  that  she  expected  a  repetition 
of  the  attempts  on  her  life  so  long  as  the  law  remained 
unaltered  by  which  they  could  be  dealt  with  only  as  acts 
of  high-treason.      The  seeming  dignity  of  martyrdom  had 
something  fascinating  in  it  to  morbid  vanity  or  crazy 
fanaticism,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  almost  certain 
that  the  martyr's  penalty  would  not  in  the  end  be  inflicted. 
A  very  appropriate  change  in  the  law  was  effected  by 
which  a  punishment  at  once  sharp  and  degrading  was  pro- 
vided even  for  mere  mourtebank  attempts  against  the 
Queen — a  punishment  which  was  certain  to  be  inflicted. 
A  bill  was  introduced  by  Sir  Robert  Peel  making  such 


[ 

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124 


/I  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


!■ 


attempts  punishable  by  transportation  for  seven  years,  or 
by  imprisonment  for  a  term  not  exceeding  three  years, 
"  the  culprit  to  be  publicly  or  privately  whipped  as  often 
and  in  such  manner  as  the  court  shall  direct,  not  exceed- 
ing thrice."  Bean  was  convicted  under  this  act,  and 
sentenced  to  eighteen  months'  imprisonment  in  Millbank 
Penitentiary.  This  did  not,  however,  conclude  the  attacks 
on  the  Queen.  An  Irish  bricklayer,  named  Hamilton, 
fired  a  pistol,  charged  only  with  powder,  at  her 
Majesty,  on  Constitution  Hill,  on  May  19th,  1849,  and 
was  sentenced  to  seven  years'  transportation.  A  man 
named  Robert  Pate,  once  a  lieutenant  of  hussars,  struck 
her  Majesty  on  the  face  vrith  a  stick  as  she  was  lea  ;ing 
the  Duke  of  Cambridge's  residence  in  her  carriage  on  May 
27th,  1850.  This  man  was  sentenced  to  seven  years' 
transportation,  but  the  judge  paid  so  much  attention  to 
the  plea  of  insanity  set  up  on  his  behalf,  as  to  omit  from 
his  punishment  the  whipping  which  might  have  been 
ordered.  Finally,  on  February  29th,  1872,  a  lad  of  seven- 
teen, named  Arthur  O'Connor,  presented  a  pistol  at  the 
Queen  as  she  was  entering  Buckingham  Palace  after  a 
drive.  The  pistol,  however,  proved  to  be  unloaded — an 
antique  and  useless  or  harmless  weapon,  with  a  flintlock 
which  was  broken,  and  in  the  barrel  a  piece  of  greasy  red 
rag.  The  wretched  lad  held  a  paper  in  one  hand,  which 
was  found  to  be  some  sort  of  petition  on  behalf  of  the 
Fenian  prisoners.  When  he  came  up  for  trial  a  plea  of 
insanity  was  put  in  on  his  behalf,  but  he  did  not  seem  to 
be  insane  in  the  sense  of  being  irresponsible  for  his 
actions  or  incapable  of  understanding  the  penalty  they  in- 
volved, and  he  was  sentenced  to  twelve  months'  impris- 
onment and  a  whipping.  We  have  hurried  over  many 
years  for  the  purpose  of  completing  this  painful  and 
ludicrous  catalogue  of  the  attempts  made  against  the 
Queen.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  not  a  single  instance  was 
there  the  slightest  political  significance  to  be  attached  to 
them.     Even  in  our  own  softened  and  civilized  time  it 


» I 


Tbe  Queen's  Marriage. 


125 


sometimes  happens  that  an  attempt  is  made  on  the  life  of 
a  sovereign  whirh,  however  we  may  condemn  and  repro- 
bate it  on  moral  grounds,  yet  does  seem  to  bear  a  distinct 
political  meaning,  and  to  show  that  there  are  fanatical 
minds  still  burning  under  some  sense  of  national  or  per- 
sonal wrong.  But  in  the  various  attacks  which  were  made 
on  Queen  Victoria  nothing  of  the  kind  was  even  pretended. 
There  was  no  opportunity  for  any  vaporing  about  Brutus 
and  Charlotte  Corday.  The  impulse,  where  it  was  not 
that  of  sheer  insanity,  was  of  kin  to  the  vulgar  love  of 
notoriety  in  certain  minds  which  sets  on  those  whom  it 
pervades  to  mutilate  noble  works  of  art  and  scrawl  their 
autographs  on  the  marble  of  immortal  monuments.  There 
was  a  great  deal  of  wisdom  shown  in  not  dealing  too 
severely  with  most  of  these  offences,  and  in  not  treating 
them  too  much  au  sMeux.  Prince  Albert  himself  said 
that  "  the  vindictive  feeling  of  the  common  people  would 
be  a  thousand  times  more  dangerous  than  the  madness  of 
individuals."  There  was  not,  indeed,  the  slightest  danger 
at  any  time  that  the  "  common  people"  of  England  could 
be  wrought  up  to  any  sympathy  with  assassination ;  nor 
was  this  what  Prince  Albert  meant.  But  the  Queen  and 
her  husband  were  yet  new  to  power,  and  the  people  had 
not  quite  lost  all  memory  of  sovereigns  who,  well-meaning 
enough,  had  yet  scarcely  understood  conctitutional  govern- 
ment, and  there  were  wild  rumors  of  reaction  this  way 
and  revolution  that  way.  It  might  have  fomented  a  feel- 
ing of  distrust  and  dissatisfaction  if  the  people  had  seen 
any  disposition  on  the  part  of  those  in  authority  to  strain 
the  criminal  law  for  the  sake  of  enforcing  a  death  penalty 
against  creatures  like  Oxford  and  Bean.  The  most  alarm- 
ing and  unnerving  of  all  dangers  to  a  ruler  is  that  of 
assassination.  Even  the  best  and  most  blameless  sovereign 
is  not  wholly  secure  against  it.  The  hand  of  Oxford 
might  have  killed  the  Queen.  Perhaps,  however,  the  best 
protection  a  sovereign  can  have  is  not  to  exaggerate  the 
danger.     There  is  no  safety  in  mere  severity  oi  punish- 


m' 


.'I    '■ 


126 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


ment.  Where  the  attempt  is  serious  and  desperate,  it  is 
that  of  a  fanaticism  which  holds  its  life  in  its  hand,  and 
is  not  to  be  deterred  by  fear  of  death.  The  tortures  of 
Ravaillac  did  not  deter  Damiens.  The  birch  in  the  case 
of  Bean  and  O'Connor  may  effectively  discountenance  en- 
terprises which  are  born  of  the  mountebank's  and  not  the 
fanatic's  spirit. 


\-U- 


W 


i     "'  ' 


ii^"  < 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  OPIUM  WAR. 


The  opium  dispute  with  China  was  going  on  when  the 
Queen  came  to  the  throne.  The  Opium  V^^ar  broke  out 
soon  after.  On  March  3d,  1843,  five  huge  wagons,  each 
of  them  drawn  by  four  horses,  and  the  whole  under  escort 
of  a  detachment  of  the  60th  Regiment,  arrived  in  front  of 
the  Mint.  An  immense  crowd  followed  the  wagons.  It 
was  seen  that  they  were  filled  with  boxes ;  and  one  of  the 
boxes  having  been  somewhat  broken  in  its  journey,  the 
crowd  were  able  to  see  that  it  was  crammed  full  of  odd- 
looking  silver  coins.  The  lookers-on  were  delighted,  as 
well  as  amused,  by  the  sight  of  this  huge  consignment  of 
treasure ;  and  when  it  became  known  that  the  silver  money 
was  the  first  instalment  of  the  China  ransom,  there  were 
lusty  cheers  given  as  the  wagons  passed  through  the  gates 
of  the  Mint.  This  was  a  payment  on  account  of  the  war 
indemnity  imposed  on  China.  Nearly  four  millions  and  a 
half  sterling  was  the  sum  of  the  indemnity,  in  addition  to 
one  million  and  a  quarter  which  had  already  been  paid  by 
the  Chinese  authorities.  Many  readers  may  remember 
that  for  some  time  "  China  money"  was  regularly  set  down 
as  an  item  in  the  revenues  of  each  year  with  which  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  had  to  deal.  The  China 
War,  of  which  this  money  was  the  spoil,  was  not,  perhaps, 
an  event  of  which  the  nation  was  entitled  to  be  very 
proud.  It  was  the  precursor  of  other  wars ;  the  policy  on 
which  it  was  conducted  has  never  since  ceased  altogether 
to  be  a  question  of  more  or  less  excited  controversy ;  but 
it  may  safely  be  asserted  that  if  the  same  events  were  to 
occur  in  our  day  it  would  be  hardly  possible  to  find  a  min- 


If' 

1 


.f|! 


i- 


9 


I  ,1: 


128 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


It-; 


istry  to  originate  a  war,  for  which  at  the  same  time  it 
must  be  owned  that  the  vast  majority  of  the  people,  of  all 
politics  and  classes,  were  only  too  ready  then  to  find  excuse 
and  even  justification.  The  wagon-loads  of  silver  con- 
veyed into  the  Mint  amid  the  cheers  of  the  crowd  were 
the  spoils  of  the  famous  Opium  War. 

Reduced  to  plain  words,  the  principle  for  which  we 
fought  in  the  China  War  was  the  right  of  Great  Britain  to 
force  a  peculiar  trade  upon  a  foreign  people  in  spite  of  the 
protestations  of  the  Government  and  all  such  public  opin- 
ion as  there  was  of  the  nation.  Of  course  this  was  not  the 
avowed  motive  of  the  war.  Not  often  in  history  is  the 
real  and  inspiring  motive  of  a  war  proclaimed  in  so  many 
words  by  those  who  carry  it  on.  Not  often,  indeed,  is  it 
seen,  naked  and  avowed,  even  in  the  minds  of  its  pro- 
moters themselves.  As  the  quarrel  between  this  country 
and  China  went  on,  a  great  many  minor  and  incidental 
subjects  of  dispute  arose,  which  for  the  moment  put  the 
one  main  and  original  question  out  of  people's  minds ;  and 
in  the  course  of  these  discussions  it  happened  more  than 
once  that  the  Chinese  authorities  took  some  steps  which 
put  them  decidedly  in  the  wrong.  Thus  it  is  true  enough 
that  there  were  particular  passages  of  the  controversy  when 
the  English  Government  had  all  or  nearly  all  of  the  right 
on  their  side,  so  far  as  the  immediate  incident  of  the  dis- 
pute was  concerned ;  and  when,  if  that  had  been  the  whole 
matter  of  quarrel,  or  if  the  quarrel  had  begun  there,  a 
patriotic  minister  might  have  been  justified  in  thinking 
that  the  Chinese  were  determined  to  offend  England  and 
deserved  humiliation.  But  no  consideration  of  this  kind 
can  now  hide  from  our  eyes  the  fact  that  in  the  beginning 
and  the  very  origin  of  the  quarrel  we  were  distinctly  in 
the  wrong.  We  asserted  or  at  least  acted  on  the  assertion 
of  a  claim  so  unreasonable  and  even  monstrous  that  it 
never  could  have  been  made  upon  any  nation  strong  enough 
to  render  its  assertion  a  matter  of  serious  responsibility. 
The  most  important  lessons  a  nation  can  learn  from  its 


I 


The  Opium  War, 


129 


5,  a 


own  history  are  found  in  the  exposure  of  its  own  errors. 
Historians  have  sometimes  done  more  evil  than  court  flat- 
terers when  they  have  gone  about  to  glorify  the  errors  of 
their  own  people,  and  to  make  wrong  appear  right,  because 
an  English  Government  talked  the  public  opinion  of  the 
time  into  a  confusion  of  principles. 

The  whole  principle  of  Chinese  civilization,  at  the 
time  when  the  Opium  War  broke  out,  was  based  on  con- 
ditions which  to  any  modem  nation  must  seem  erroneous 
and  unreasonable.  The  Chinese  governments  and  people 
desired  to  have  no  political  relations  or  dealings  whatever 
with  any  other  State.  They  were  not  so  obstinately  set 
against  private  and  commercial  dealings ;  but  they  would 
have  no  political  intercourse  with  foreigners,  and  they 
would  not  even  recognize  the  existence  of  foreign  peoples 
as  States.  They  were  perfectly  satisfied  with  themselves 
and  their  own  systems.  They  were  convinced  that  their 
own  systems  were  not  only  wise  but  absolutely  perfect.  It 
is  superfluous  to  say  that  this  was  in  itself  evidence  of 
ignorance  and  self-conceit.  A  belief  in  the  perfection  of 
their  own  systems  could  only  exist  among  a  people  who 
knew  nothing  of  any  other  systems.  But  absurd  as  the 
idea  must  appear  to  us,  yet  the  Chinese  might  have  found 
a  good  deal  to  say  for  it.  It  was  the  result  of  a  civiliza- 
tion so  ancient  that  the  oldest  events  preserved  in  European 
history  were  but  as  yesterday  in  the  comparison.  What- 
ever its  errors  and  defects,  it  was  distinctly  a  civilization. 
It  was  a  system  with  a  literature  and  laws  and  institutions 
of  its  own ;  it  was  a  coherent  and  harmonious  social  and 
political  system  which  had,  on  the  whole,  worked  toler- 
ably well.  It  was  not  very  unlike,  in  its  principles,  the 
kind  of  civilization  which  at  one  time  it  was  the  whim  of 
men  of  genius,  like  Rousseau  and  Diderot,  to  idealize  and 
admire.  The  European,  of  whatever  nation,  may  be  said 
to  like  change,  and  to  believe  in  its  necessity.  His  in- 
stincts and  his  convictions  alike  tend  this  way.  The  sleepi- 
est of  Europeans — the  Neapolitan,  who  lies  with  his  feet 
Vol.  I.— 9 


II 


■Sir.' 


It 


!i)' 


.'■)■  * 


i 


I.     ; 


130 


A  Hirtory  of  Our  Own  Times. 


in  the  water  on  theChiaja;  the  Spaniard,  who  smokes 
his  cigar  and  sips  his  coffee  as  if  life  had  no  active  busi- 
ness whatever;  the  fldneur  of  the  Paris  boulevards;  the 
beggar  who  lounged  from  cabin  to  cabin  in  Ireland  a  gen- 
eration ago — all  these,  no  matter  how  little  inclined  for 
change  themselves,  would  be  delighted  to  hear  of  travel 
and  enterprise,  and  of  new  things  and  new  discoveries. 
But  to  the  Chinese,  of  all  Eastern  races,  the  very  idea  of 
travel  and  change  was  something  repulsive  and  odious. 
As  the  thought  of  having  to  go  a  day  unwashed  would  be 
to  the  educated  Englishman  of  our  age,  or  as  the  edge  of  a 
precipice  is  to  a  nervous  man,  so  was  the  idea  of  innovation 
to  the  Chinese  of  that  time.  The  ordinary  Oriental  dreads 
and  detests  change ;  but  the  Chinese  at  that  time  went  as 
far  beyond  the  ordinary  Oriental  as  the  latter  goes  be- 
yond an  average  Englishman.  In  the  present  day  a  con- 
siderable alteration  has  taken  place  in  this  respect.  The 
Chinese  have  had  innovation  after  innovation  forced  on 
them,  until  at  last  they  have  taken  up  with  the  new  order 
of  things,  like  people  who  feel  that  it  is  idle  to  resist  their 
fate  any  longer.  The  emigration  from  China  has  been 
as  remarkable  as  that  from  Ireland  or  Germany ;  and  the 
United  States  finds  itself  confronted  with  a  question  of 
the  first  magnitude  when  it  asks  itself  what  is  to  be  the 
influence  and  operation  of  the  descent  of  the  Chinese 
populations  along  the  Pacific  slope.  Japan  has  put  on 
modern  and  European  civilization  like  a  garment.  Japan 
effected  in  a  few  years  a  revolution  in  the  political  consti- 
tution and  the  social  habits  of  her  people,  and  in  their  very 
way  of  looking  at  things,  the  like  of  which  no  other  State 
ever  accomplished  in  a  centuiy.  But  nothing  of  all  this 
was  thought  of  at  the  time  of  the  China  War.  The  one 
thing  which  China  asked  of  European  civilization  and  the 
thing  called  Modern  Progress  was  to  be  let  alone.  China's 
prayer  to  Europe  was  that  of  Diogenes  to  Alexander — 
"  Stand  out  of  my  sunshine. " 
It  was,  as  we  have  said,  to  political  relationships  rather 


1  \ 


hi  - 


The  Opium  War. 


Ui 


than  to  private  and  commercial  dealings  with  foreign  peo- 
ples that  the  Chinese  felt  an  unconquerable  objection. 
They  did  not,  indeed,  like  even  private  and  commercial 
dealings  with  foreigners.     They  would  much  rather  have 
lived  without  ever  seeing  the  face  of  a  foreigner.     But 
they  had  put  up  with  the  private  intrusion  of  foreigners 
and  trade,  and  had  had  dealings  with  American  traders, 
and  with  the  Bast  India  Company.     The  charter  and  the 
exclusive  rights  of  the  East  India  Company  expired  in 
April,  1834;  the  charter  was  renewed  under  different  con- 
ditions, and  the  trade  with  China  was  thrown  open.     One 
of  the  great  branches  of  the  East  India  Company's  busi- 
ness with  China  was  the  opium  trade.     When  the  trading 
privileges  ceased  this  traffic  was  taken  up  briskly  by 
private  merchants,  who  bought  of  the  Company  the  opium 
which  they  grew  in  India  and  sold  it  t">  the  Chinese.     The 
Chinese  governments,  and  all  teachers,  moralists,   and 
persons  of  education  in  China,  had  long  desired  to  get  rid 
of  or  put  down  this  trade  in  opium.     They  considered  it 
highly  detrimental  to  the  morals,  the  health,  and  the 
prosperity  of  the  people.     Of  late  the  destructive  effects 
of  opium  have  often  been  disputed,  particularly  in  the 
House  of  Commons.     It  has  been  said  that  it  is  not,  on 
the  average,  nearly  so  unwholesome  as  the  Chinese  gov- 
ernments always  thought,  and  that  it  does  not  do  as  much 
proportionate  harm  to  China  as  the  use  of  brandy,  whiskey, 
and  gin  does  to  England.     It  seems  to  this  writer  hardly 
possible  to  doubt  that  the  use  of  opium  is,  on  the  whole,  a 
curse  to  any  nation;  but  even  if  this  were  not  so,  the 
question  between  England  and  the  Chinese  governments 
would  remain  just  the  same.     The  Chinese  governments 
may  have  taken  exaggerated  views  of  the  evils  of  the 
opium  trade ;  their  motives  in  wishing  to  put  it  down  may 
have  been  mixed  with  considerations  of  interest  as  much 
political  as  philanthropic.     Lord  Palmerston  insisted  that 
the  Chinese  Government  were  not  sincere  in  their  pro- 
fessed objection  on  moral  grounds  to  the  traffic.     If  they 


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132 


/I  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


were  sincere,  he  asked,  why  did  they  not  prevent  the 
growth  of  the  poppy  in  China?  It  was,  he  tersely  put  it, 
an  "  exportation  of  bullion  question,  an  agritultural  pro- 
tection question;"  it  was  a  question  of  the  poppy  interest 
in  China,  and  of  the  economists  who  wished  to  prevent 
the  exportation  of  the  precious  metals.  It  is  curious  that 
such  arguments  as  this  could  have  weighed  with  any  one 
for  a  moment.  It  was  no  business  of  ours  to  ask  ourselves 
whether  the  Chinese  Government  were  perfectly  sincere 
in  their  professions  of  a  lofty  morality,  or  whether  they, 
unlike  all  other  governments  that  have  ever  been  known, 
were  influenced  by  one  sole  motive  in  the  making  of  their 
regulations.  All  that  had  rothing  to  do  with  the  question. 
States  are  not  at  liberty  to  help  the  subjects  of  other  States 
to  break  the  laws  of  their  own  governments.  Especially 
when  these  laws  even  profess  to  concern  questions  of 
morals,  is  it  the  duty  of  foreign  States  not  to  interfere 
with  the  regulations  which  a  government  considers  it 
necessary  to  impose  for  the  protection  of  its  people.  All 
traffic  in  opium  was  strictly  forbidden  by  the  governments 
and  laws  of  China ;  yet  our  English  traders  carried  on  a 
brisk  and  profitable  trade  in  the  forbidden  article.  Nor 
was  this  merely  an  ordinary  smuggling,  or  a  business  akin 
to  that  of  the  blockade-running  during  the  American  civil 
war.  Th^  arrangements  with  the  Chinese  Government 
allowed  the  existence  of  all  establishments  and  machinery 
for  carrying  on  a  general  trade  at  Canton  and  Macao ;  and 
under  cover  of  these  arrangements  the  opium  traders  set 
up  their  regular  headquarters  in  these  towns. 

Let  us  find  an  illustration  intelligible  to  readers  of  the 
present  day  to  show  how  unjustifiable  was  this  practice. 
The  State  of  Maine,  as  every  one  knows,  prohibits  the 
common  sale  of  spirituous  liquors.  Let  us  suppose  that 
several  companies  of  English  merchants  were  formed  in 
Portland  and  Augusta,  and  the  other  towns  of  Maine,  for 
the  purpose  of  brewing  beer  and  distilling  whiskey,  and 
selling  both  to  the  public  of  Maine  in  defiance  of  the  State 


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laws.  Let  us  further  suppose  that  when  the  authorities 
of  Maine  proceeded  to  put  the  State  laws  in  force  against 
these  intruders,  our  Government  here  took  up  the  cause 
of  the  whiskey-sellers,  and  sent  an  iron-clad  fleet  to  Port- 
land to  compel  the  people  of  Maine  to  put  up  with  them. 
It  seems  impossible  to  think  of  any  English  Government 
taking  such  a  course  as  this;  or  of  the  English  public 
enduring  it  for  one  moment.  In  the  case  of  such  a  nation 
as  the  United  States,  nothing  of  the  kind  would  be  possible. 
The  serious  responsibilities  of  any  such  undertaking  would 
make  even  the  most  thoughtless  minister  pause,  and  would 
give  the  public  in  general  some  time  to  think  the  matte- 
over  ;  and  before  any  freak  of  the  kind  could  be  attempted 
the  conscience  of  the  nation  would  bo  aroused,  and  the 
unjust  policy  would  have  to  be  abandoned.  But  in  dealing 
with  China  the  ministry  never  seems  to  have  thought  the 
right  or  wrong  of  the  question  a  matter  worthy  of  any 
consideration.  The  controversy  was  entered  upon  with  as 
light  a  heart  as  a  modern  war  of  still  graver  moment. 
The  people  in  general  knew  nothing  about  the  matter 
until  it  had  gone  so  far  that  the  original  point  of  dispute 
was  almost  out  of  sight,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  safety  of 
English  suDJects  and  the  honor  of  England  were  com- 
promised in  some  way  by  the  high-handed  proceedings  of 
the  Chinese  Government. 

The  English  Government  appointed  superintendents  to 
manage  our  commercial  dealings  with  China.  Unluckily 
these  superintendents  were  invested  with  a  sort  of  political 
or  diplomatic  character,  and  thus  from  the  first  became 
objectionable  to  the  Chinese  authorities.  One  of  the  .^vst 
of  these  superintendents  acted  in  disregard  of  the  express 
instructions  of  his  own  Government.  He  was  told  that 
he  must  not  pass  the  entrance  of  the  Canton  River  in  a 
vessel  of  war,  as  the  Chinese  authorities  always  made  a 
marked  distinction  between  ships  of  war  and  merchant 
vessels  in  regard  to  the  freedom  of  intercourse.  Mis- 
understandings occurred  at  every  new  step  of  negotiation. 


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These  misunderstandings  were  natural.  Our  people  knew 
hardly  anything  about  the  Chinese.  The  limitation  of 
our  means  of  communication  with  them  made  this  igno- 
rance inevitable,  but  certainly  did  not  excuse  our  acting  as 
if  we  were  in  possession  of  the  fullest  and  most  accurate 
information.  The  manner  in  which  some  of  our  official 
instructors  went  on  was  well  illustrated  by  a  sentence  in 
the  speech  of  Sir  James  Graham,  during  the  debate  on  the 
whole  subject  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  April,  1840. 
It  was,  Sir  James  Graham  said,  as  if  a  foreigner  who  was 
occasioially  permitted  to  anchor  at  the  Nore,  and  at  times 
to  land  at  Wapping,  being  placed  in  close  confinement 
during  his  continuance  there,  were  to  pronounce  a  deliber- 
ate opinion  upon  the  resources,  the  genius,  and  the  char- 
acter of  the  British  Empire. 

Our  rexjresentatives  were  generally  disposed  to  be  un- 
yielding; and  not  only  that,  but  to  see  deliberate  offence 
in  every  Chinese  usage  or  ceremony  which  the  authorities 
endeavored  to  impose  on  them.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
clear  that  the  Chinese  authorities  thoroughly  detested 
them  and  their  mission,  and  all  about  them,  and  often 
made  or  countenanced  delays  that  were  unnecessary,  ana 
interferences  which  were  disagreeable  and  offensive.  The 
Chinese  believed  from  the  first  that  the  superintendents 
were  there  merely  to  protect  the  opium  trade,  and  to  force 
on  China  political  relations  with  the  West.  Practically  this 
was  the  effect  of  their  presence.  The  superintendents 
took  no  steps  to  aid  the  Chinese  authorities  in  stopping 
the  hated  trade.  The  British  traders  naturally  enough 
thought  that  the  British  Government  were  determined  to 
protect  them  in  carrying  it  on.  Indeed,  the  superintend- 
ents themselves  might  well  have  had  the  same  conviction. 
The  Government  at  home  allowed  Captain  Elliott,  the 
chief  superintendent,  to  make  appeal  after  appeal  for 
instructions  without  paying  the  slightest  attention  to  him. 
Captain  Elliott  saw  that  the  opium  traders  were  growing 
more  and  more  reckless  and  audacious;  that  they  were 


W 


Tbe  Opium  War. 


«35 


thrusting  their  trade  under  the  very  eyes  of  the  Chinese 
authorities.     He  also  saw,  as  every  one  on  the  spot  must 
have  seen,  that  the  authorities,  who  had  been  somewhat 
apathetic  for  a  long  time,  were  now  at  last  determined  to 
go  any  lengths  to  put  down  the  traffic.     At  length  the 
English  Government  announced  to  Captain  Elliott  the 
decision  which  they  ought  to  have  made  known  months, 
not  to  say  years,  before,  that  "her  Majesty's  Government 
could  not  interfere  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  British 
subjects  to  violate  the  laws  of  the  country  with  which  they 
trade ;"  and  that  *'  any  loss,  therefore,  which  such  persons 
may  suffer  in  consequence  of  the  more  effectual  execution 
of  the  Chinese  laws  on  this  svbiect  must  be  borne  by  the 
parties  who  have  brought  that  loss  on  themselves  by  their 
own  acts."    This  very  wise  and  proper  resolve  came,  how- 
ever, too  late.     The  British  traders  had  been  allowed  to  go 
on  for  a  long  time  under  the  full  conviction  that  the  protec- 
tion of  the  English  Government  was  behind  them,  and 
wholly  at  their  service.     Captain  Elliott  himself  seems  to 
have  now  believed  that  the  announcement  of  his  superiors 
was  but  a  graceful  diplomatic  figure  of  speech.     When  the 
Chinese  authorities  actually  proceeded  to  insist  on  the  for- 
feiture of  an  immense  quantity  of  the  opium  in  the  hands 
of  British  traders,  and  took  other  harsh  but  certainly  not 
unnatural   measures   to   extinguish   the   traffic.  Captain 
Elliott  sent  to  the  Governor  of  India  a  request  for  as  many 
ships  of  war  as  could  be  spared  for  the  protection  of  the 
life  and  property  of  Englishmen  in  China.     Before  long 
British  ships  arrived,  and  the  two  countries  were  at  war. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  describe  the  successive  steps  by 
which  the  war  came  on.  It  was  inevitable  from  the 
moment  that  the  English  superintendent  identified  him- 
self with  the  protection  of  the  opium  trade.  The  English 
believed  that  the  Chinese  authorities  were  determined  on 
war,  and  only  waiting  for  a  convenient  moment  to  make 
a  treacherous  beginning.  The  Chinese  were  convinced 
that  from  the  first  we  had  meant  nothing  but  war.     Such 


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A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


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a  condition  of  feeling  on  both  sides  would  probably  have 
made  war  unavoidable,  even  in  the  case  of  two  nations  who 
had  much  better  ways  of  understanding;  each  other  than 
the  English  and  Chinese.  It  is  not  surprising  if  the  Eng- 
lish people  at  home  knew  little  of  the  original  causes  of 
the  controversy.  All  that  presented  itself  to  their  mind 
was  the  fact  that  Englishmen  were  in  danger  in  a  foreign 
country;  that  they  were  harshly  treated  and  recklessly 
imprisoned ;  that  their  lives  were  in  jeopardy,  and  that  the 
flag  of  England  was  insulted.  There  was  a  general  notion, 
too,  that  the  Chinese  were  a  barbarous  and  a  ridiculous 
people,  who  had  no  alphabet,  and  thought  themselves 
much  better  than  any  other  people,  even  the  English,  and 
that  on  the  whole  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to  take  the 
conceit  out  of  them.  Those  who  remember  what  the 
common  feeling  of  ordinary  society  was  at  the  time,  will 
admit  that  it  did  not  reach  a  much  loftier  level  than  this. 
The  matter  was,  however,  taken  up  more  seriously  in 
Parliament. 

The  policy  of  the  Government  was  challenged  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  but  with  results  of  more  importance 
to  the  existing  composition  of  the  English  Cabinet  than  to 
the  relations  between  this  country  and  China.  Sir  James 
Graham  moved  a  resolution  condemning  the  policy  of 
ministers  for  having,  by  its  uncertainty  and  other  errors, 
brought  about  the  war,  which,  however,  he  did  not  then 
think  it  possible  to  avoid.  A  debate  which  continued  for 
three  days  took  place.  It  was  marked  by  the  same  curious 
mixture  of  parties  which  we  have  seen  in  debates  on 
China  questions  in  days  nearer  to  the  present.  The  de- 
fence of  the  Government  was  opened  by  Mr.  Macaulay, 
who  haa  been  elected  for  Edinburgh  and  appointed  Secre- 
tary at  War.  The  defence  consisted  chiefly  in  the  argu- 
ment that  we  could  not  have  put  the  trade  in  opium  down, 
no  matter  how  earnest  we  had  been,  and  that  it  was  not 
necessary  or  possible  to  keep  on  issuing  frequent  instruc- 
tions to  agents  so  far  away  as  our  representatives  in  Ch.'na. 


I 


The  Opium  War. 


137 


Mr.  Macaulay  actually  drew,  from  our  experience  in  India, 
an  argument  in  support  of  his  position.  We  cannot  gov- 
ern India  from  London,  he  insisted;  we  must,  for  the 
most  part,  govern  India  in  India.  One  can  imagine  how 
Macaulay  would,  in  one  of  his  essays,  have  torn  into  pieces 
such  an  argument  coming  from  any  advocate  of  a  policy 
opposed  to  his  own.  The  reply,  indeed,  is  almost  too 
obvious  to  need  any  exposition.  In  India  the  complete 
materials  of  administration  were  in  existence.  There  was 
a  Governor-general ;  there  were  councillors ;  there  was  an 
army.  The  men  best  qualified  to  rule  the  country  were 
there,  provided  with  all  the  appliances  and  forces  of  rule. 
In  China  we  had  an  agent  with  a  vague  and  anomalous 
office  dropped  down  in  the  middle  of  a  hostile  people, 
possessed  neither  of  recognized  authority  nor  of  power  to 
enforce  its  recognition.  It  was  probably  true  enough  that 
we  could  not  have  put  down  the  opium  trade ;  that  even 
with  all  the  assistance  of  the  Chinese  Government  we 
could  have  done  no  more  than  to  drive  it  from  one  port  in 
order  to  see  it  make  its  appearance  at  another.  But  what 
we  ought  to  have  done  is,  therefore,  only  the  more  clear. 
We  ought  to  have  announced  from  the  first,  and  in  i':o 
firmest  tone,  that  we  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
trade;  that  we  would  not  protect  it;  and  we  ought  to  have 
held  to  this  determination.  As  it  was,  we  allowed  our 
traders  to  remain  under  the  impression  that  we  were  will- 
ing to  support  them,  until  it  was  too  late  to  undeceive 
them  with  any  profit  to  their  safety  or  our  credit.  The 
Chinese  authorities  acted  after  a  while  with  a  high-handed 
disregard  of  fairness,  and  of  anything  like  what  we  should 
call  the  responsibility  of  law ;  but  it  is  evident  that  they 
believed  they  were  themselves  the  objects  of  lawless  in- 
trusion and  enterprise.  There  were  on  the  part  of  the 
Governmen.  great  efforts  made  to  represent  the  motion 
as  an  attempt  to  prevent  the  ministry  from  exacting  satis- 
faction from  the  Chinese  Government,  and  from  protect- 
ing the  lives  and  interests  of  Englishmen  in  China.     But 


1 


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158 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


it  is  unfortunately  only  too  often  the  duty  of  statesmen  to 
recognize  the  necessity  of  carrying  on  a  war,  even  while 
they  are  of  opinion  that  they  whose  mismanagement 
brought  about  the  war  deserve  condemnation.  When 
Englishmen  are  being  imprisoned  and  murdered,  the  in- 
nocent just  as  well  as  the  guilty,  in  a  foreign  country — 
when,  in  short,  war  is  actually  going  on — it  is  not  possible 
for  English  statesmen  in  opposition  to  say,  **  We  will  not 
allow  England  to  strike  a  blow  in  defence  of  our  fellow- 
countrymen  and  our  flag,  because  we  are  of  opinion  that 
better  judgment  on  the  part  of  our  Government  would 
have  spared  us  the  beginning  of  such  a  war. "  There  was 
really  no  inconsistency  in  recognizing  the  necessity  of 
carrying  on  the  war,  and  at  the  same  time  censuring  the 
ministry  who  had  allowed  the  necessity  to  be  forced  upon 
us.  Sir  Robert  Peel  quoted  with  great  effect,  during  the 
debate,  the  example  of  Fox,  who  declared  his  readiness  to 
give  every  help  to  the  prosecution  of  a  war  which  the  very 
same  day  he  proposed  to  censure  the  ministry  for  having 
brought  upon  the  country.  With  all  their  efforts,  the 
ministers  were  only  able  to  command  a  majority  of  nine 
votes  as  the  result  of  the  three  days'  debate. 

The  war,  however,  went  on.  It  was  easy  work  enough 
so  far  as  England  was  concerned.  It  was  on  our  side 
nothing  but  a  succession  of  cheap  victories.  The  Chinese 
fought  very  bravely  in  a  great  many  instances ;  and  they 
showed  still  more  often  a  Spartan-like  resolve  not  to  sur- 
vive defeat.  When  one  of  the  Chinese  cities  was  taken 
by  Sir  Hugh  Gough,  the  Tartar  general  went  into  his 
house  as  soon  as  he  saw  that  all  was  lost,  made  his  servants 
set  fire  to  the  building,  and  calmly  sat  in  his  chair  until 
he  was  burned  to  death.  One  of  the  English  officers 
writes  of  the  same  attack  that  it  was  impossible  to  com- 
pute the  loss  of  the  Chinese,  **  for  when  they  found  they 
could  stand  no  longer  against  us,  they  cut  the  throats  of 
their  wives  and  children,  or  drove  them  into  wells  or 
ponds,  and  then  destroyed  themselves.     In  many  houses 


The  Opium  War. 


U9 


there  were  from  eight  to  twelve  dead  bodies,  and  I  myself 
saw  a  dozen  women  and  children  drowning  themselves  in 
a  small  pond  the  day  after  the  fight. "  We  quickly  captured 
the  island  of  Chusan,  on  the  east  coast  of  China ;  a  part 
of  our  squadron  went  up  the  Peiho  River  to  threaten  the 
capital ;  negotiations  were  opened,  and  the  preliminaries 
of  a  treaty  were  made  oiit^  to  which,  however,  neither  the 
English  Government  nor  the  Chinese  would  agree,  and 
the  war  was  reopened.  Chusan  was  again  taken  by  us ; 
Ningfo,  a  large  city  a  few  miles  in  on  the  mainland,  fell 
into  our  hands ;  Amoy,  farther  south,  was  captured ;  our 
troops  were  before  Nankin  when  the  Chinese  Government 
at  last  saw  how  futile  was  the  idea  of  resisting  our  arms. 
Their  women  or  their  children  might  just  as  well  have 
attempted  to  encounter  our  soldiers.  With  all  the  bravery 
which  the  Chinese  often  displayed,  there  was  something 
pitiful,  pathetic,  ludicrous,  in  the  simple  and  childlike  at- 
tempts which  they  made  to  carry  on  war  against  us.  They 
made  peace  at  last  on  any  terms  we  chose  to  ask.  We 
asked,  in  the  first  instance,  the  cession  in  perpetuity  to  us 
of  the  island  of  Hong-Kong.  Of  course  we  got  it.  Then 
we  asked  that  five  ports — Canton,  Amoy,  Foo-Chow-Foo, 
Ningpo,  and  Shanghai — should  be  thrown  open  to  British 
traders,  and  that  consuls  should  be  established  there. 
Needless  to  say  that  this,  too,  was  conceded.  Then  it  was 
agreed  that  the  indemnity  already  mentioned  should  be 
paid  by  the  Chinese  Government — son  e  four  millions  and 
a  half  sterling,  in  addition  to  one  million  and  a  quarter  as 
compensation  for  the  destroyed  opium.  It  was  also  stipu- 
lated that  correspondence  between  officials  of  the  two 
Governments  was  thenceforth  to  be  carried  on  upon  equal 
terms.  The  war  was  over  for  the  present,  and  the  thanks 
.  of  both  Houses  of  Parliament  were  voted  to  the  fleet  and 
army  engaged  in  the  operations.  The  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton moved  the  vote  of  thanks  in  the  House  of  Lords.  He 
could  hardly  help,  one  would  think,  forming  in  his  mind 
as  he  spoke  an  occasional  contrast  between  the  services 


140 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


im  '■' 


i!  •?! 


If  '' 


which  he  asked  the  House  to  honor,  and  the  ort  of  war- 
fare which  it  had  been  his  glorious  duty  to  engage  in  so 
long  The  Duke  of  Wellington  was  a  simple-minded  man, 
with  little  sense  of  humor.  He  did  not,  probably,  per- 
ceive himself  the  irony  that  others  might  have  seen  in  the 
fact  that  the  conqueror  of  Napoleon,  the  victor  in  years  of 
warfare  against  soldiers  unsurpassed  in  history,  should 
have  had  to  move  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  fleet  and  army 
which  triumphed  over  the  unarmed,  helpless,  childlike 
Chinese. 

The  whole  chapter  of  history  ended,  not  inappropriately 
perhaps,  with  a  rather  pitiful  dispute  between  the  English 
Government  and  the  English  traders  about  the  amount  of 
compensation  to  which  the  latter  laid  claim  for  their  de- 
stroyed opium.  The  Government  were  in  something  of  a 
difficulty ;  for  they  had  formally  announced  that  they  were 
resolved  to  let  the  traders  abide  by  any  loss  which  their 
violation  of  the  laws  of  China  might  bring  upon  them. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  they  had  identified  themselves  by 
the  war  with  the  cause  of  the  traders ;  and  one  of  the  con- 
ditions of  peace  had  been  the  compensation  for  the  opium. 
The  traders  insisted  that  the  amount  given  for  this  purpose 
by  the  Chinese  Government  did  not  nearly  meet  their 
losses.  The  English  Government,  on  the  other  hand, 
would  not  admit  that  they  were  bound  in  any  way  further 
to  make  good  the  losses  of  the  merchants.  The  traders 
demanded  to  be  compensated  according  to  the  price  of 
opium  at  the  time  the  seizure  was  made ;  a  demand  which, 
if  we  admit  any  claim  at  all,  seems  only  fair  and  reason- 
able.  The  Government  had  clearly  undertaken  their  cause 
in  the  end,  and  were  hardly  in  a  position,  either  logical  or 
dignified,  when  they  afterward  chose  to  say,  "  Yes,  we 
admit  that  we  did  undertake  to  get  you  redress,  but  we  do 
not  think  now  that  we  are  bound  to  give  you  full  redress. " 
At  last  the  matter  was  compromised ;  the  merchants  had 
to  take  what  they  could  get,  something  considerably  below 
their  demand,  and  give  in  return  to  the  Government  an 


The  Opium  War, 


141 


immediate  acquittance  in  full.  It  is  hard  to  get  up  any 
feeling  of  sympathy  with  the  traders  who  lost  on  such  a 
speculation.  It  is  hard  to  feel  any  regret  even  if  the 
Government  which  had  done  so  much  for  them  in  the  war 
treated  them  so  shabbily  when  the  war  was  over;  but  that 
they  were  treated  shabbily  in  the  final  settlement  seems  to 
us  to  allow  of  no  doubt. 

The  Chinese  war,  then,  was  over  for  the  time.  But  as 
the  children  say  that  snow  brings  more  snow,  so  did  that 
war  with  China  bring  other  wars  to  follow  it. 


^i 


VN  ' 


»* ' 


i- 


v«    • 


CHAPTER  IX. 

DECLINE    AND   FALL  OF   THE   WHIG   MINISTRY. 

The  Melbourne  Ministry  kept  going  from  bad  to  worse. 
There  was  a  great  stirring  iu  the  country  all  around  them, 
which  made  their  feebleness  the  more  conspicuous.  We 
sometimes  read  in  history  a  defence  of  some  particular 
sovereign  whom  common  opinion  cries  down,  the  defence 
being  a  reference  to  the  number  of  excellent  measures  that 
were  set  in  motion  during  his  reign.  If  we  were  to  judge 
of  the  Melbourne  Ministry  on  the  same  principle,  it  might 
seem,  indeed,  as  if  their  career  was  one  of  extreme  activity 
and  fruitfulness.  Reforms  were  astir  in  almost  every 
direction.  Inquiries  into  the  condition  of  our  poor  and  our 
laboring  classes  were,  to  use  a  cant  phrase  of  the  time,  the 
order  of  the  day.  The  foundation  of  the  colony  of  New 
Zealand  was  laid  with  a  philosophical  deliberation  and 
thoughtfulness  which  might  have  reminded  one  of  Locke 
and  the  Constitution  of  the  Carolinas.  Some  of  the  first 
comprehensive  and  practical  measures  to  mitigate  the 
rigor  and  to  correct  the  indiscriminateness  of  the  death 
punishment  were  taken  during  this  period.  One  of  the 
first  legislative  enactments  which  fairly  acknowledged  the 
difference  between  an  English  wife  and  a  purchased  slave, 
so  far  as  the  despotic  power  of  the  master  was  concerned, 
belongs  to  the  same  time.  This  was  the  Custody  of  In- 
fants Bill,  the  object  of  which  was  to  obtain  for  mothers 
of  irreproachable  conduct,  who  through  no  fault  of  theirs 
were  living  apart  from  their  husbands,  occasional  access 
to  their  children,  with  the  permission  and  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  Equity  Judges.  It  is  curious  to  notice  how  long 
and  how  fiercely  this  modest  measure  of  recognition  for 


fP/^: 


Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Whig  Ministry.  143 

what  may  almost  be  called  the  natural  rights  of  a  wife 
and  a  mother  was  disputed  in  Parliament,  or  at  least  in 
the  House  of  Lords. 

It  is  curious,  too,  to  notice  what  a  clamor  was  raised 
over  the  small  contribution  to  the  cause  of  national  educa- 
tion which  was  made  by  the  Melbourne  Government.  In 
1834  the  first  grant  of  public  money  for  the  purposes  of 
elementary  education  was  made  by  Parliament.  The 
sum  granted  was  twenty  thousand  pounds,  and  the  same 
grant  was  made  eveij  year  until  1839.  Then  Lord  John 
Russell  asked  for  an  increase  of  ten  thousand  pounds,  and 
proposed  a  change  in  the  manner  of  appropriating  the 
money.  Up  to  that  time  the  grant  had  been  distributed 
through  the  National  School  Society,  a  body  in  direct 
connection  with  the  Church  of  England,  and  the  British 
and  Foreign  School  Association,  which  admitted  children 
of  all  Christian  denominations  without  imposing  on  them 
sectarian  teaching.  The  money  was  dispensed  by  the 
Lords  of  the  Treasury,  who  gave  aid  to  applicants  in  pro- 
portion to  the  size  and  cost  of  the  school  buildings  and  the 
number  of  children  who  attended  them.  Naturally  the 
result  of  such  an  arrangement  was  that  the  districts  which 
needed  help  the  most  got  it  the  least.  If  a  place  was  so 
poor  as  not  to  be  able  to  do  anything  for  itself,  the  Lords 
of  the  Treasury  would  do  nothing  for  it.  Naturally,  too, 
the  rich  and  powerful  Church  of  England  secured  the 
greater  part  of  the  grant  for  itself.  There  was  no  inspec- 
tion of  the  schools ;  no  reports  were  made  to  Parliament  as 
to  the  manner  in  which  the  system  worked ;  no  steps  were 
taken  to  find  out  if  the  teachers  were  qualified  or  the 
teaching  was  good.  *'  The  statistics  of  the  schools,"  says 
a  writer  in  the  Edinburgh  Review,  "  were  alone  considered 
— the  size  of  the  school-room,  the  cost  of  the  building, 
and  the  number  of  scholars."  In  1839  Lord  John  Russell 
proposed  to  increase  the  grant,  and  an  Orde""  in  Council 
transferred  its  distribution  to  a  committee  of  the  privy 
council,  composed  of  the  president  and  not  more  than  five 


i 


144 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


■!     ! 


I:i 


members.  Lord  John  Russell  also  proposed  the  appoint- 
ment of  inspectors,  the  founding  of  a  model  school  for  the 
training  of  teachers,  and  the  establishment  of  infant 
schools.  The  model  school  and  the  infant  schools  were  to 
be  practically  unsectarian.  The  committee  of  the  privy 
council  were  to  be  allowed  to  depart  from  the  principle  of 
proportioning  their  grants  to  the  amount  of  local  contribu- 
tion, to  establish  in  poor  and  crowded  places  schools  not 
necessarily  connected  with  either  of  the  two  educational 
societies,  and  to  extend  their  aid  even  to  schools  where 
the  Roman  Catholic  version  of  the  Bible  was  read.  The 
proposals  of  the  Government  were  fiercely  opposed  in  both 
Houses  of  Parliament.  The  most  various  and  fantastic 
forms  of  bigotry  combined  against  them.  The  appli- 
cation of  public  money,  and  especially  through  the 
hands  of  the  committee  of  privy  council,  to  any  schools 
not  under  the  control  and  authority  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land was  denounced  as  a  State  recognition  of  popery  and 
heresy.  Scarcely  less  marvellous  to  us  now  are  the 
speeches  of  those  who  promoted  than  of  those  who  opposed 
the  scheme.  Lord  John  Russell  himself,  who  was  much 
in  advance  of  the  common  opinion  of  those  among  whom 
he  moved,  pleaded  for  the  principles  of  his  measure  in  a 
tone  rather  of  apology  than  of  actual  vindication.  He  did 
not  venture  to  oppose  point-blank  the  claim  of  those  who 
insisted  that  it  was  part  of  the  sacred  right  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  to  have  the  teaching  all  done  in  her  own 
way  or  to  allow  no  teaching  at  all. 

The  Government  did  not  get  all  they  sought  for.  They 
had  a  fierce  fight  for  their  grant,  and  an  amendment  moved 
by  Lord  Stanley,  to  the  effect  that  her  Majesty  be  re- 
quested to  revoke  the  Order  in  Council  appointing  the 
Committee  on  Education,  was  only  negatived  by  a  major- 
ity of  two  votes — 275  to  273.  In  the  Lords,  to  which  the 
struggle  was  transferred,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
actually  moved  and  carried  by  a  large  majority  an  address 
to  the  Queen  praying  her  to  revoke  the  Order  in  Council. 


^  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Whig  Ministry.  145 

The  Queen  replied  firmly  that  the  funds  voted  by  Parlia- 
ment would  be  found  to  be  laid  out  in  strict  accordance 
with  constitutional  usage,  the  rights  of  conscience,  and  the 
safety  of  the  Established  Church,  and  so  dismissed  the 
question.  The  Government,  therefore,  succeeded  in  es- 
tablishing their  Committee  of  Council  on  Education,  the 
institution  by  which  our  system  of  public  instruction  has 
been  managed  ever  since.  The  ministry,  on  the  whole, 
showed  to  advantage  in  this  struggle.  They  took  up  a 
principle,  and  they  stood  by  it.  If,  as  we  have  said,  the 
speeches  made  by  the  promoters  of  the  scheme  seem  amaz- 
ing to  any  intelligent  person  of  our  time  because  of  the 
feeble,  apologetic,  and  almost  craven  tone  in  which  they 
assert  the  claims  of  a  system  of  national  education,  yet  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  principle  was  accepted  by  the 
Government  at  some  risk  and  that  it  was  not  shabbily  de- 
serted in  the  face  of  hostile  pressure.  It  is  worth  noticing 
that  while  the  increased  grant  and  the  principles  on  which 
it  was  to  be  distributed  were  opposed  by  such  men  as  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  Lord  Stanley,  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  Mr,  Dis- 
raeli, it  had  the  support  of  Mr.  O'Connell  and  of  Mr.  Smith 
O'Brien.  Both  these  Irish  leaders  only  regretted  that  the 
grant  was  not  very  much  larger,  and  that  it  was  not 
appropriated  on  a  more  liberal  principle.  O'Connell  was 
the  recognized  leader  of  the  Irish  Catholics  and  National- 
ists; Smith  O'Brien  was  an  aristocratic  Protestant.  With 
all  the  weakness  of  the  Whig  Ministry,  their  term  of  office 
must  at  least  be  remarkable  for  the  new  departure  it  took 
in  the  matter  of  national  education.  The  appointment  of 
the  Committee  of  Council  marks  an  epoch. 

Indeed,  the  history  of  that  time  seems  full  of  Reform 
projects.  The  Parliamentary  annals  contain  the  names  of 
various  measures  of  social  and  political  improvement 
which  might  in  themselves,  it  would  seem,  bear  witness 
to  the  most  unsleeping  activity  on  the  part  of  any  minis- 
try. Measures  for  general  registration ;  for  the  reduction 
of  the  stamp  duty  on  newspapers,  and  of  the  duty  on 
Vol.  I.— 10 


! 


146 


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paper;  for  the  improvement  of  the  jail  system;  for  the 
spread  of  vaccination ;  for  the  regulation  of  the  labor  of 
children ;  for  the  prohibition  of  the  employment  of  any 
child  or  young  person  under  twenty-one  in  the  cleaning 
of  chimneys  by  climbing ;  for  the  suppression  of  the  pun- 
ishment o^  the  pillory ;  efforts  to  relieve  the  Jews  from 
civji  rlisrsrijities — these  are  but  a  few  of  the  many  projects 
oi  is-y.'vA  an'l.  political  reform  that  occupied  the  attention 
of  th;  >  period,  which  somehow  appears,  nevertheless, 

to  have  oeen  i  ^eepy  and  do-nothing.  How  does  it  come 
about  that  we  can  regard  the  ministry  in  whose  time  all 
these  things  were  done  or  attempted  as  exhausted  and 
worthless? 

One  answer  is  plain.  The  reforming  energy  was  in  the 
time  and  not  in  the  ministry.  In  every  instance  public 
opinion  went  far  ahead  of  the  inclinations  of  her  Majesty's 
ministers.  There  was  a  just  and  general  conviction  that 
if  the  Government  were  left  to  themselves  they  would  do 
nothing.  When  they  were  driven  into  any  course  of 
improvement  they  usually  did  all  they  could  to  minimize 
the  amount  of  reform  to  be  effected.  Whatever  they 
undertook  they  seemed  to  undertake  reluctantly,  and  as 
if  only  with  the  object  of  preventing  other  people  from 
having  anything  to  do  with  it.  Naturally,  therefore,  they 
got  little  or  no  thanks  for  any  good  they  might  have  done. 
When  they  brought  in  a  measure  to  abolish  in  various  cases 
the  punishment  of  death,  they  fell  so  far  behind  public 
opinion  and  the  inclinations  of  the  commission  that  had 
for  eight  years  been  inquiring  into  the  state  of  our  crim- 
inal law  that  their  bill  only  passed  by  very  narrow 
majorities,  and  impressed  many  ardent  reformers  as  if  it 
were  meant  rather  to  withhold  than  to  advance  a  genuine 
reform.  In  truth,  it  was  a  period  of  enthusiasm  and  of 
growth,  and  the  ministry  did  not  understand  this.  Lord 
Melbourne  seems  to  have  found  it  hard  to  persuade  him- 
self that  there  was  any  real  anxiety  in  the  mind  of  any  one 
to  do  anything  in  particular.     He  had,  apparently,  got 


m  \ 


life 


Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Whig  Ministry. 


<47 


into  his  mind  the  conviction  that  the  only  sensible  thing 
the  people  of  England  could  do  was  to  keep  up  the  Mel- 
bourne Ministry,  and  that  being  a  sensible  people,  they 
would  naturally  do  this.  He  had  grown  into  something 
like  the  condition  of  a  pampered  old  hall -porter,  who,  doz- 
ing in  his  chair,  begins  to  look  on  it  as  an  act  of  rudeness 
if  any  visitor  to  his  master  presumes  to  knock  at  the  door 
and  so  disturb  him  from  his  comfortable  rest. 

Any  one  who  doubts  that  it  was  really  a  time  of  enthu- 
siasm in  these  countries  has  only  to  f  ""^e  at  its  history. 
The  Church  of  England  and  the  Chu\  ih  Scotland  were 
alike  convulsed  by  movements  wh  n  w.tj  the  offspring 
of  a  genuine  and  irresistible  en*'  si.  -m — enthusiasm  of 
that  strong,  far-reaching  kind  which  ^  la'ces  epochs  in  the 
history  of  a  church  or  a  pecp«^.  In  Ireland  Father 
Mathew,  a  pious  and  earnest  iru  ,  vno  had  neither  elo- 
quence nor  learning  nor  genius,  but  only  enthusiasm  and 
noble  purpose,  had  stirred  the  hearts  of  the  population  in 
the  cause  of  temperance  as  thoroughly  as  Peter  the  Hermit 
might  have  stirred  the  hearts  of  a  people  to  a  crusade. 
Many  of  the  efforts  of  social  reform  which  are  still  periodi- 
cally made  among  ourselves  had  their  beginning  then,  and 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  made  much  advance  from  that 
day  to  this.  In  July,  1840,  Mr.  Hume  moved  in  the 
House  of  Commons  for  an  address  to  the  Throne,  praying 
that  the  British  Museum  and  the  National  Gallery  might 
be  opened  to  the  public  after  Divine  service  on  Sundays, 
"  at  such  hours  as  taverns,  beer-shops,  and  gin-shops  are 
legally  opened."  The  motion  was,  of  course,  r^^jected; 
but  it  is  worthy  of  mention  now  as  an  evidence  of  the 
point  to  which  the  spirit  of  social  reform  had  advanced  at 
a  period  when  Lord  Melbourne  had  seemingly  made  up 
his  mind  that  reform  had  done  enough  for  his  generation, 
and  that  ministers  might  be  allowed,  at  least  during  his 
time,  to  eat  their  meals  in  peace  without  being  disturbed 
by  the  urgencies  of  restless  Radicals,  or  threatened  with 
hostile  majorities  and  Tory  successes. 


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I  ill  i 


The  Stockdale  case  was  a  disturbance  of  ministerial  re- 
pose which  at  one  time  threatened  to  bring  about  a  collision 
between  the  privileges  of  Parliament  and  the  authorities 
of  the  law  courts.  The  Messrs.  Hansard,  the  well-known 
Parliamentary  printers,  had  published  certain  Parlia- 
mentary reports  on  prisons,  in  which  it  happened  that  a 
book  published  by  J.  J.  Stockdale  was  described  as  obscene 
and  disgusting  in  the  extreme.  Stockdale  proceeded 
against  the  Hansards  for  libel.  The  Hansards  pleaded 
the  authority  of  Parliament ;  but  Lord  Chief -justice  Den- 
man  decided  that  the  House  of  Commons  was  not  Parlia- 
ment, and  had  no  authority  to  sanction  the  publication  of 
libels  on  individuals.  Out  of  this  contradiction  of  author- 
ities arose  a  long  and  often  a  very  unseemly  squabble. 
The  House  of  Commons  would  not  give  up  its  privileges ; 
the  law  courts  would  not  admit  its  authority.  Judgment 
was  given  by  default  against  the  Hansards  in  one  of  the 
many  actions  for  libel  which  arose  out  of  the  affair,  and 
the  sheriffs  of  London  were  called  on  to  seize  and  sell 
some  of  the  Hansards'  property  to  satisfy  the  demands  of 
the  plaintiff.  The  unhappy  sheriffs  were  placed,  as  the 
homely  old  saying  would  describe  it,  between  the  devil 
and  the  deep  sea.  If  they  touched  the  property  of  the 
Hansards  they  were  acting  in  contempt  of  the  privilege 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  were  liable  to  be  com- 
mitted to  Newgate.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  they  refused 
to  carry  out  the  orders  of  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  that 
court  would  certainly  send  them  to  prison  for  the  refusal. 
The  reality  of  their  dilemma  was,  in  fact,  very  soon 
proved.  The  amount  of  the  damages  was  paid  into  the 
Sheriff's  Court  in  order  to  avoid  the  scandal  of  a  sale,  but 
under  protest ;  the  House  of  Commons  ordered  the  sheriflEs 
to  refund  the  money  to  the  Hansards ;  the  Court  of  Queen's 
Bench  was  moved  for  an  order  to  direct  the  sheriffs  to  pay 
it  over  to  Stockdale.  The  sheriffs  were  finally  committed 
to  the  custody  of  the  sergeant-at-arms  for  contempt  of  the 
House  of  Commons.    The  Court  of  Queen's  Bench  served 


IJ!;i^     I 


Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Whig  Ministry.  149 

a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  on  the  s('rgeant-at-arms  calling  on 
him  to  produce  the  sheriffs  in  CGurt.  The  House  directed 
the  sergeant-at-arms  to  inform  the  court  that  he  held  the 
sheriffs  in  custody  by  order  of  the  Commons.  The  ser- 
geant-at-arm  took  the  sheriffs  to  the  Court  of  Queen's 
Bench  and  made  his  statement  there ;  his  explanation  w/.s 
declared  reasonable  and  sufficient,  and  he  marched  his 
prisoners  back  again.  A  great  deal  of  this  ridiculous  sort 
of  thing  went  on  which  it  is  not  now  necessary  to  describe 
in  any  detail.  The  House  of  Commons,  what  with  the 
arrest  of  the  sheriffs  and  of  agents  acting  on  behalf  of  the 
pertinacious  Stockdale,  had  on  their  hands  batches  of  pris- 
oners with  whom  they  did  not  know  in  the  least  what  to 
do;  the  whole  affair  created  immense  popular  excitement, 
mingled  with  much  ironical  laughter.  At  last  the  House 
of  Commons  had  recourse  to  legislation,  and  Lord  John 
Russell  brought  in  a  bill  on  March  3d,  1840,  to  afford 
summary  protection  to  all  persons  employed  in  the  pub- 
lication of  Parliamentary  papers.  The  preamble  of  the 
measure  declared  "  that  whereas  it  is  essential  to  the  due 
and  effectual  discharge  of  the  functions  and  duties  of  Par- 
liament that  no  obstruction  should  exist  to  the  publication 
of  the  reports,  papers,  votes,  or  proceedings  of  either 
House,  as  such  House  should  deem  fit,"  it  is  to  be  lawful 
"for  any  person  or  persons  against  whom  any  civil  or 
criminal  proceedings  shall  be  taken  on  account  of  such 
publication  to  bring  before  the  court  a  certificate  under  the 
hand  of  the  Lord  Chancellor  or  the  Speaker,  stating  that 
it  was  published  by  the  authority  of  the  House,  and  the 
proceedings  should  at  once  be  stayed."  This  bill  was  run 
quickly  through  both  Houses — not  without  some  opposi- 
tion or  at  least  murmur  in  the  Upper  House — and  it  be- 
came law  on  April  14th.  It  settled  the  question  satisfac- 
torily enough,  although  it  certainly  did  not  define  the 
relative  rights  of  Parliament  and  the  courts  of  law.  No 
difficulty  of  the  same  kind  has  since  arisen.  The  sheriffs 
and  the  other  prisoners  were  discharged  from  custody  ai  er 


190 


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T 

'■■■A 


W4 


\  i  ) 


a  while,  and  the  public  excitement  went  out  in  quiet 
lauj^hter. 

The  question,  however,  was  a  very  serious  one;  and  it 
is  significant  that  public  opinion  was  almost  entirely  on 
the  side  of  the  law  courts  and  the  sheriffs.  The  ministry 
must  have  so  fallen  in  public  favor  as  to  bring  the  House 
of  Commons  into  disrepute  alon^?  with  them,  or  such  a 
sentiment  could  not  have  prevailed  so  widely  out-of-doors. 
The  public  seemed  to  see  nothing  in  the  whole  affair  but 
a  tyrannical  House  of  Commons  wielding  illimitable  pow- 
er against  a  few  humble  individuals,  some  of  whom,  the 
sheriffs,  for  instance,  had  no  share  in  the  controversy  ex- 
cept that  imposed  on  them  by  official  duty.  Accordingly 
the  sheriffs  were  the  heroes  of  the  hour,  and  were  toasted 
and  applauded  all  over  the  country.  Assuredly  it  was  an 
awkward  position  for  the  House  of  Commons  to  be  placed 
in  when  it  had  to  vindicate  its  privileges  by  committing 
to  prison  men  who  were  merely  doing  a  duty  which  the 
law  courts  imposed  on  them.  It  would  have  been  better, 
probably,  if  the  Government  had  more  firmly  asserted 
the  rights  of  the  House  of  Commons  at  the  beginning,  and 
thus  allowed  the  public  to  see  the  real  question  which  the 
whole  controversy  involved.  Nothing  can  be  more  clear 
now  than  the  paramount  importance  of  securing  to  each 
House  of  Parliament  an  absolute  authority  and  freedom  of 
publication.  No  evil  that  could  possibly  arise  out  cf  the 
misuse  of  such  a  power  could  be  anything  like  that  certain 
to  come  of  a  state  of  things  which  restricted,  by  libel  laws 
or  otherwise,  the  right  of  either  House  to  publish  what- 
ever it  thought  proper  for  the  public  good.  Not  a  single 
measure  for  the  reform  of  any  great  gfrievance,  from  the 
abolition  of  slavery  to  the  passing  of  the  Factory  Acts, 
but  might  have  been  obstructed,  and  perhaps  even  pre- 
vented, if  the  free  exposure  of  existing  evils  were  denied 
to  the  Houses  of  Parliament.  In  this  country.  Parliament 
only  works  through  the  power  of  public  opinion.  A  social 
reform  is  not  carried  out  simply  by  virtue  of  the  decision 


m 


\m 


Decline  and  Fall  of  the  IVhtg  Ministry. 


151 


of  a  cabinet  that  something  ought  to  be  done.  The  atten- 
tion of  the  Legislature  and  of  the  public  has  to  be  called 
to  the  grievance  again  and  again,  by  speeches,  resolutions, 
debates,  and  divisions,  before  there  is  any  chance  of  carry- 
ing a  measure  on  the  subject.  When  public  opinion  is 
ripe,  and  is  strong  enough  to  help  the  Government  through 
with  a  reform  in  spite  of  prejudice  and  vested  intarests, 
then,  and  not  till  then,  the  reform  is  carried.  But  it 
would  be  hardly  possible  to  bring  the  matter  up  to  this 
stage  of  growth  if  those  who  were  interested  in  upholding 
a  grievance  had  the  power  of  worrying  the  pjMishers  of 
the  Parliamentary  reports  by  legal  proceedings  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  the  discussion.  Nor  would  it  be  of  any 
use  to  protect  merely  the  freedom  of  debate  in  Parliament 
itself.  It  is  not  through  debate,  but  through  publication, 
that  the  public  opinion  of  the  country  is  reached.  In 
truth,  the  poorer  a  man  is,  the  weaker  and  the  humbler, 
the  greater  need  is  there  that  he  should  call  out  for  the  full 
freedom  of  publication  to  be  vested  in  the  hands  of  Parlia- 
ment. The  factory  child,  the  climbing  boy,  the  appren- 
tice under  colonial  systems  of  modified  slavery,  the  sea- 
man sent  to  sea  in  the  rotten  ship ;  the  woman  clad  in 
unwomanly  rags  who  sings  her  "  Song  of  a  Shirt ;"  the 
other  woman,  almost  literally  unsexed  in  form,  function, 
and  soul,  who  in  her  filthy  trousers  of  sacking  dragged  on 
all-fours  the  coal  trucks  in  the  mines — these  are  the  tyrants 
and  the  monopolists  for  whom  we  assert  the  privilege  of 
Parliamentary  publication. 

The  operations  which  took  place  about  this  time  in 
Syria  belong,  perhaps,  rather  to  the  general  history  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire  than  to  that  of  England.  But  they  had 
so  important  a  bearing  on  the  relations  between  this  coun- 
try and  Prance,  and  are  so  directly  connected  with  subse- 
quent events  in  which  England  bore  a  >eading  part,  i.hat 
it  would  be  impossible  to  pass  them  over  without  s*  me 
notice  here.  Mohammed  Ali,  Pasha  of  Egypt,  the  raost 
powerful  of  all  the  Sultan's  feudatories,  a  man  of  iron  will 


1^2 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


'  I 


2    .        •  >       '■' 


and  great  capacity  both  for  war  and  administration,  had 
made  himself  for  a  time  master  of  Syria.  By  the  aid  of 
the  warlike  qualities  of  his  adopted  son,  Ibrahim  Pasha, 
he  had  defeated  the  armies  of  the  Porte  wherever  he  had 
encountered  them.  Mohammed's  victories  had,  for  the 
time,  compelled  the  Porte  to  allow  him  to  remain  in 
power  in  Syria;  but  the  Sultan  had  long  been  preparing 
to  try  another  effort  for  the  reduction  of  his  ambitious 
vassal.  In  1839  the  Sultan  again  declared  war  against 
Mohammed  Ali.  Ibrahim  Pasha  again  obtained  an  over- 
whelming victory  over  the  Turkish  army.  The  energetic 
Sultan  Mahmoud,  a  man  not  unworthy  to  cope  with  such 
an  adversary  as  Mohammed  Ali,  died  suddenly;  and 
immediately  after  his  death  the  Capitan  Pasha,  or  Lord 
High  Admiral  of  the  Ottoman  fleet,  went  over  to  the 
Egyptians  with  all  his  vessels;  an  act  of  almost  unex- 
ampled treachery  even  in  the  history  of  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire. It  was  evident  that  Turkey  was  not  able  to  hold 
her  own  against  the  formidable  Mohammed  and  his  suc- 
cessful son;  and  the  policy  of  the  Western  Powers  of 
Europe,  and  of  England  especially,  had  long  been  to 
maintain  the  Ottoman  Empire  as  a  necessary  part  of  the 
common  State  system.  The  policy  of  Russia  was  to  keep 
up  that  empire  as  long  as  it  suited  her  own  purposes ;  to 
take  care  that  no  other  Power  got  anything  out  of  Turkey ; 
and  to  prepare  the  way  for  such  a  partition  of  the  spoils 
of  Turkey  as  would  satisfy  Russian  interests.  Russia, 
therefore,  was  to  be  found  now  defending  Turkey,  and 
now  assailing  her.  The  course  taken  by  Russia  was  seem- 
ingly inconsistent;  but  it  was  only  inconsistent  as  the 
course  of  a  sailing  ship  may  be  which  now  tacks  to  this  side 
and  now  to  that,  but  has  a  clear  object  in  view  and  a  port 
to  reach  all  the  while.  England  was  then,  and  for  a  long 
time  after,  steadily  bent  on  preserving  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire, and  in  a  great  measure  as  a  rampart  against  the 
schemes  and  ambitions  imputed  to  Russia  herself,  France 
was  less  firmly  set  on  the  maintenance  of  Turkey;  and 


•( 


!.M 


Decline  and  Fall  of  the  IVbig  Ministry. 


i53 


France,  moreover,  bad  got  it  into  her  mind  that  England 
had  designs  of  her  own  on  Egypt.  Austria  was  disposed 
to  go  generally  with  England ;  Prussia  was  little  more  than 
a  nominal  sharer  in  the  alliance  that  was  now  tinkered  up. 
It  is  evident  that  such  an  alliance  could  not  be  very  harmo- 
nious or  direct  in  its  action.  It  was,  however,  effective 
enough  to  prove  too  strong  for  the  Pasha  of  Egypt.  A 
fleet  made  up  of  English,  Austrian,  and  Turkish  vessels 
bombarded  Acre ;  r?.n  allied  army  drove  the  Egyptians  from 
several  of  their  strongholds.  Ibrahim  Pasha,  with  all  his 
courage  and  genius,  was  not  equal  to  the  odds  against 
which  he  now  saw  himself  forced  to  contend.  He  had  to 
succumb.  No  one  could  doubt  that  he  and  his  father  were 
incomparably  better  able  to  give  good  government  and 
the  chances  of  development  to  Syria  than  the  Porte  had 
ever  been.  But  in  this  instance,  as  in  others,  the  odious 
principle  was  upheld  by  England  and  her  actual  allies 
that  the  Turkish  Empire  must  be  maintained,  at  no  mat- 
ter what  cost  of  suffering  and  degradation  to  its  subject 
populations.  Mohammed  Ali  was  deprived  of  all  his 
Asiatic  possessions,  but  was  secured  in  his  government  of 
Egypt.  A  convention  signed  at  London  on  July  1 5th,  1 840, 
arranged  for  the  imposition  of  those  terms  on  Mohammed 
Ali. 

The  convention  was  signed  by  the  representatives  of 
Great  Britain,  Austria,  Prussia,  and  Russia  on  the  one 
part,  and  of  the  Ottoman  Porte  on  the  other.  The  name 
of  France  was  not  found  there.  France  had  drawn  back 
from  the  alliance,  and  for  some  time  seemed  as  if  she  were 
likely  to  take  arms  against  it.  M.  Thiers  was  then  her 
Prime-minister;  he  was  a  man  of  quick  fancy,  restless  and 
ambitious  temperament,  and  what  we  cannot  help  calling 
a  vulgar  spirit  of  national  self-sufficiency — we  are  speak- 
ing now  of  the  Thiers  of  1840,  not  of  the  wise  and  capable 
statesman,  tempered  and  tried  by  the  fire  of  adversity, 
who  reorganized  France  out  of  the  ruin  and  welter  of  1870. 
Thiers  persuaded  himself  and  the  great  majority  of  his 


154 


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Ji  i  •  ■ 


countrymen  that  England  was  bent  upon  driving  Moham- 
med Ali  out  of  Egypt  as  well  as  out  of  Syria,  and  that 
her  object  was  to  obtain  possession  of  Egypt  for  herself. 
For  some  months  it  seemed  as  if  war  were  inevitable  be- 
tween England  and  France,  although  there  was  not  in 
reality  the  slightest  reason  why  the  two  States  should 
quarrel.  France  was  just  as  far  away  from  any  thought 
of  a  really  disinterested  foreign  policy  as  England.  Eng- 
land, on  the  other  hand,  had  not  the  remotest  idea  of 
becoming  the  possessor  of  Egypt.  Fortunately  Louis 
Philippe  and  M.  Guizot  were  both  strongly  in  favor  of 
peace ;  M.  Thiers  resigned ;  and  M.  Guizot  became  Min- 
ister for  Foreign  Affairs,  and  virtually  head  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. Thiers  defended  his  policy  in  t!ie  French 
Chamber  in  a  scream  of  passionate  and  almost  hysterical 
declamation.  Again  and  again  he  declared  that  his  mind 
had  been  made  up  to  go  to  war  if  England  did  not  at  once 
give  way  and  modify  the  terms  of  the  convention  of  July. 
It  cannot  be  doubted  that  Thiers  carried  with  him  much 
of  the  excited  public  feeling  of  France.  But  the  King 
and  M.  Guizot  were  happily  supported  by  the  majority  in 
and  out  of  the  Chambers;  and  on  July  13th,  1841,  the 
Treaty  of  London  was  signed,  which  provided  for  the  set- 
tlement of  the  affairs  of  Egypt  on  the  basis  of  the  arrange- 
ment already  made,  and  which  contained,  moreover,  the 
stipulation,  to  be  referred  to  more  than  once  hereafter,  by 
which  the  Sultan  declared  himself  firmly  resolved  to  main- 
tain the  ancient  principle  of  his  empire — that  no  foreign 
ship  of  war  was  to  be  admitted  into  the  Dardanelles  and 
the  Bosphorus,  with  the  exception  of  light  vessels  for  which 
a  firman  was  granted. 

The  public  of  this  country  had  taken  but  little  interest 
in  the  controversy  about  Egypt,  at  least  until  it  seemed 
likely  to  involve  England  in  a  war  with  France.  Some 
of  the  episodes  of  the  war  were  indeed  looked  upon  with 
a  certain  satisfaction  by  people  here  at  home.  The  brav- 
ery   of    Charles    Napier,  the  hot-headed,   self-conceited 


1/^ 

I  ■■■■  I  ti 


Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Whig  Ministry. 


•55 


commodore,  was  enthusiastically  extolled,  and  his  feats 
of  successful  audacity  were  glorified  as  though  they  had 
shown  the  genius  of  a  Nelson  or  the  clever  resource  of 
a  Cochrane.  Not  many  of  Napier's  admirers  cared  a  rush 
about  the  merits  of  the  quarrel  between  the  Porte  and  the 
Pasha.  Most  of  them  would  have  been  just  as  well  pleased 
if  Napier  had  been  fighting  for  the  Pasha  and  against  the 
Porte ;  not  a  few  were  utterly  ignorant  as  to  whether  he 
was  fighting  for  Porte  or  for  Pasha.  Those  who  claimed 
to  be  more  enlightened  had  a  sort  of  general  idea  that  it 
was  in  some  way  essential  to  the  safety  and  glory  of  Eng- 
land that  whenever  Turkey  was  in  trouble  we  should  at 
once  become  her  champions,  tame  her  rebels,  and  conquer 
her  enemies.  Unfounded  as  were  the  suspicions  of  French- 
men about  our  designs  upon  Egypt,  they  can  hardly  be 
called  very  unreasonable.  Even  a  very  cool  and  impar- 
tial Frenchman  might  be  led  to  the  conclusion  that  free 
England  would  not  without  some  direct  purpose  of  !ier 
own  have  pledged  herself  to  the  cause  of  a  base  and  a 
decaying  despotism. 

Steadily,  meanwhile,  did  the  ministry  go  from  bad  to 
worse.  They  had  greatly  damaged  their  character  by  the 
manner  in  which  they  had  again  and  again  put  up  with 
defeat,  and  consented  to  resume  or  retain  office  on  any 
excuse  or  pretext.  They  were  remarkably  bad  adminis- 
trators ;  their  finances  were  wretchedly  managed.  In  later 
times  we  have  come  to  regard  the  Tories  as  especially 
weak  in  the  matter  of  finance.  A  well-managed  revenue 
and  a  comfortable  surplus  are  generally  looked  upon  as  in 
some  way  or  other  the  monopoly  of  a  Liberal  adminis- 
tration; while  lavish  expenditure,  deficit,  and  increased 
taxation  are  counted  among  the  necessary  accompaniments 
of  a  Tory  Government.  So  nearly  does  public  opinion  on 
both  sides  go  to  accepting  these  conditions,  that  there  are 
many  Tories  who  take  it  rather  as  a  matter  of  pride  that 
their  leaders  are  not  mean  economists,  and  who  regard  a 
free-handed  expenditure  of  the  national  revenue  as  some- 


I 


156 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


i'i 


m 


thing  peculiarly  gentleman-like,  and  in  keeping  with  th^ 
honorable  traditions  of  a  great  country  party.  But  this 
was  not  the  idea  which  prevailed  in  the  days  of  the  Mel- 
bourne Ministry.  Then  the  universal  conviction  was  that 
the  Whigs  were  incapable  of  managing  the  finances.  The 
budget  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  Mr.  Baring, 
showed  a  deficiency  of  nearly  two  millions.  This  defi- 
ciency he  proposed  to  meet  in  part  by  alteration  in  the 
sugar  duties;  but  the  House  of  Commons,  ati.r  a  long  de- 
bate, rejected  his  proposals  by  a  majority  of  thirty-six. 
It  was  then  expected,  of  course,  that  ministers  wDUla 
resign ;  but  they  were  not  yet  willing  to  accept  the  conse- 
quences of  defeat.  They  thought  they  had  ;>other  stone 
in  their  sling.  Lord  John  Russell  had  previously  given 
notice  of  his  intention  to  move  for  a  comriittee  of  the 
whole  House  to  consider  the  state  of  legislation  with  regard 
to  the  trade  in  com ;  and  he  now  brought  forward  an  an- 
nouncement of  his  plan,  which  was  to  -rrtpose  a  fixed 
duty  of  eight  shillings  per  quarter  p  wht ;,i\  and  propor-" 
tionately  diminished  rates  on  rye,  barley,  and  oats.  Ex- 
cept for  its  effect  on  the  fortunes  of  the  Melbourne  Ministry 
there  is  not  the  sliJ);^^.' .  -i  importance  to  be  attached  to  this 
proposal.  It  was  Ui  e  t  .riment  in  the  direction  of  the 
Free-traders,  who  were  just  beginning  to  be  powerful, 
although  they  were  not  nearly  strong  enough  yet  to  dictate 
the  policy  of  a  government.  We  shall  have  to  tell  the 
story  of  Free-trade  hereafter;  this  present  incident  is  no 
part  of  the  history  of  a  great  movement;  it  is  merely  a 
small  party  dodge.  It  deceived  no  one.  Lord  Melbourne 
had  always  spoken  with  the  uttermost  contempt  of  the 
Free-trade  agitation.  With  characteristic  oaths,  he  had 
declared  that  of  all  the  mad  things  he  had  ever  heard 
suggested,  Free-trade  was  the  maddest.  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell himself,  although  far  more  enlightened  than  the 
Prime-minister,  had  often  condemned  and  sneered  at  the 
demand  for  Free-trade.  The  conversion  of  the  ministers 
into  the  official  advocates  of  a  moderate  fixed  duty  was 


fv 


1  th^ 

this 

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1 1 


Rt.   Hon.   Sir  ROBERT  PEEL,   Bart. 
From  the   Painting   by   Sir  Thomas   Lawrence,    P.RA 


'I 


■I 


.  ! 


Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Whig  Ministry. 


«57 


all  too  sudden  for  the  Conscience,  for  the  very  stomach  of 
the  nation.  Public  opinion  would  not  endure  it.  Nothing 
but  harm  came  to  the  Whigs  from  the  attempt.  Instead 
of  any  new  adherents  or  fresh  sympathy  being  won  for 
them  by  their  proposal,  people  only  asked,  "  Will  nothing, 
then,  turn  them  out  of  office?  Will  they  never  have  done 
with  trying  new  tricks  to  keep  in  place?" 

Sir  Robert  Peel  took,  in  homely  phrase,  the  bull  by  the 
horns.  He  proposed  a  direct  vote  of  want  of  confidence — 
a  resolution  declaring  that  ministers  did  not  possess  confi- 
dence of  the  House  sufficiently  to  enable  them  to  carry 
through  the  measures  which  they  deemed  of  essential 
importance  to  the  public  welfare,  and  that  their  continu- 
ance in  office  under  such  circumstances  was  at  variance 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution.  On  June  4th,  1841, 
the  division  was  taken ;  and  the  vote  of  no-confidence  was 
carried  by  a  majority  of  one.  Even  the  Whigs  could  not 
stand  this.  Lord  Melbourne  at  last  began  to  think  that 
things  were  looking  serious.  Parliament  was  dissolved, 
and  the  result  of  the  general  election  was  that  the  Tories 
were  found  to  have  a  majority  even  greater  than  they 
themselves  had  anticipated.  The  moment  the  new  Parlia- 
ment was  assembled,  amendments  to  the  address  were 
carried  in  both  Houses  in  a  sense  hostile  to  the  Govern- 
ment. Lord  Melbourne  and  his  colleagues  had  to  resign, 
and  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  intrusted  with  the  task  of  forming 
an  administration. 

We  have  not  much  more  to  do  with  Lord  Melbourne  in 
this  history.  He  merely  drops  out  of  it.  Between  his 
expulsion  from  office  and  his  death,  which  took  place  in 
1848,  he  did  little  or  nothing  to  call  for  the  notice  of  any 
one.  It  was  said  at  one  time  that  his  closing  years  were 
lonesome  and  melancholy;  but  this  has  lately  been  denied, 
and  indeed  it  is  not  likely  that  one  who  had  such  a  genial 
temper  and  so  many  friends  could  have  been  left  to  the 
dreariness  of  a  not  self-sufficing  solitude  and  to  the  bitter- 
ness of  neglect.     He  was  a  generous  and  kindly  man ;  his 


/  X 


il 


'■!; 


158 


j4  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


personal  character,  although  often  assailed,  was  free  of  any 
serious  reproach ;  he  was  a  failure  in  office,  not  so  much 
from  want  of  ability,  as  because  he  was  a  politician  with- 
out convictions. 

The  Peel  Ministry  came  into  power  with  great  hopes. 
It  had  Lord  Lyndhurst  for  Lord  Chancellor;  Sir  James 
Graham  for  Home  Secretary ;  Lord  Aberdeen  at  the  Foreign 
Office ;  Lord  Stanley  was  Colonial  Secretary.  The  most 
remarkable  man  not  in  the  cabinet,  soon  to  be  one  of  the 
foremost  statesmen  in  the  country,  was  Mr.  W.  E.  Glad- 
stone. It  is  a  fact  of  some  significance  in  the  history  of  the 
Peel  administration  that  the  elections  which  brought  the 
new  ministry  into  power  brought  Mr.  Cobden  for  the  first 
time  into  the  House  of  Commons, 


Mr 


CHAPTER  X. 


MOVEMENTS  IN  THE  CHURCHES. 


While  Lord  Melbourne  and  his  Whig  colleagues,  still 
in  office,  were  fribbling  away  their  popularity  on  the 
pleasant  assumption  that  nobody  was  particularly  in  ear« 
nest  about  anything,  the  Vice-chancellor  and  heads  of 
houses  held  a  meeting  at  Oxford,  and  passed  a  censure  on 
the  celebrated  "  No.  90, "  of  "  Tracts  for  the  Times. "  The 
movement,  of  which  some  important  tendencies  were 
formally  censured  in  the  condemnation  of  this  tract,  was 
one  of  the  most  momentous  that  had  stirred  the  Church  of 
England  since  the  Reformation.  The  author  of  the  tract 
was  Dr.  John  Henry  Newman,  and  the  principal  ground 
for  its  censure,  by  voices  claiming  authority,  was  the 
principle  it  seemed  to  put  forward — that  a  man  might 
honestly  subscribe  to  all  the  articles  and  formularies  of  the 
English  Church,  while  yet  holding  many  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church  of  Rome,  against  which  those  articles  were 
regarded  as  a  necessary  protest.  The  great  movement 
which  was  thus  brought  into  sudden  question  and  publi- 
city was  in  its'jlf  an  offspring  of  the  immense  stirring  of 
thought  which  the  French  Revolution  called  up,  and  which 
had  its  softened  echo  in  the  English  Reform  Bill.  The 
centre  of  the  religious  movement  was  to  be  found  in  the 
University  of  Oxford.  When  it  is  in  the  right,  and  when 
it  is  in  the  wrong,  Oxford  has  always  had  more  of  the 
sentimental  and  of  the  poetic  in  its  cast  of  thought  than 
its  rival  or  colleague  of  Cambridge.  There  were  two  in- 
fluences then  in  operation  over  England,  both  of  which 
alike  aroused  the  alarm  and  the  hostility  of  certain  gifted 
and  enthusiastic  young  Oxford  men.  One  was  the  tendency 


i6o 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


IS  !  ■• 


t  '! 


.»«! 


i  '  ', 


to  Rationalism  drawn  from  the  German  theologians;  the 
other  was  the  manner  in  which  the  connection  of  the 
Church  with  the  State  in  England  was  beginning  to  oper- 
ate to  the  disadvantage  of  the  Church  as  a  sacred  institu- 
tion and  teacher.  The  Reform  party  everywhere  were 
assailing  the  rights  and  property  of  the  Church.  In  Ireland, 
especially,  experiments  were  made  which  every  practical 
man  will  now  regard  with  approval,  whether  he  be  Church- 
man or  not,  but  which  seemed  to  the  devoted  ecclesiast  of 
Oxford  to  be  fraught  with  danger  to  the  freedom  and  in- 
fluence of  the  Church.  Out  of  the  contemplation  of  these 
dangers  sprang  the  desire  to  revive  the  authority  of  the 
Church ;  to  quicken  her  with  a  new  vitality ;  to  give  her 
once  again  that  place  as  guide  and  inspirer  of  the  national 
life  which  her  ardent  votaries  believed  to  be  hers  by  right, 
and  to  have  been  forfeited  only  by  the  carelessness  of  her 
authorities,  and  their  failure  to  fulfil  the  duties  of  her 
Heaven-assigned  mission. 

No  movement  could  well  have  had  a  purer  source.  None 
could  have  had  more  disinterested  and  high-minded  pro- 
moters. It  was  borne  in  upon  some  earnest,  unresting  souls, 
like  that  of  the  sweet  and  saintly  Keble — souls  "  without 
haste  and  without  rest,"  like  Goethe's  star — that  the 
Church  of  England  had  higher  duties  and  nobler  claims 
than  the  business  of  preaching  harmless  sermons  and  the 
power  of  enriching  bishops.  Keble  could  not  bear  to  think 
of  the  Church  taking  pleasure  since  all  is  well.  He  urc^ed 
on  some  of  the  more  vigorous  and  thoughtful  minds  around 
him,  or  rather  he  suggested  it  by  his  influence  and  his  ex- 
ample, that  they  should  reclaim  for  the  Church  the  place 
which  ought  to  be  hers  as  the  true  successor  of  the  Apos- 
tles. He  claimed  for  her  that  she,  and  she  alone,  was  the 
real  Catholic  Church,  and  that  Rome  had  wandered  away 
from  the  right  path,  and  foregone  the  glorious  mission 
which  she  might  have  maintained.  Among  those  who 
shared  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  Keble  were  Richard  Hur- 
rell  Froude,  the  historian's  elder  brother,  who  gave  rich 


if 


Movements  in  the  Churches. 


i6i 


the 
the 


promise  of  a  splendid  career,  but  who  died  while  still  in 
comparative  youth;  Dr.  Pusey,  afterward  leader  of  the 
school  of  ecclesiasticism  which  bears  his  name ;  and,  most 
eminent  of  all,  Dr.  Newman.  Keble  had  taken  part  in  the 
publication  of  a  series  of  treatises  called  "  Tracts  for  the 
Times,'*  the  object  of  which  was  to  vindicate  the  real  mis- 
•?!>  IS  the  writers  believed,  of  the  Church  of  England. 
X  nis  was  the  Tractarian  movement,  which  had  such  var- 
ious and  memorable  results.  Newman  first  started  the 
project  of  the  Tracts,  and  wrote  the  most  remarkable  of 
them.  He  had,  up  to  his  time,  been  distinguished  as  one 
of  the  most  unsparing  enemies  of  Rome.  At  the  same 
time  he  was,  as  he  has  himself  said,  "  fierce"  against  the 
"  instruments"  and  the  "  manifestations"  of  "  the  Liberal 
cause. "  While  he  was  at  Algiers  once,  a  French  vessel 
put  in  there,  flying  the  tricolor.  Newman  would  not  even 
look  at  her.  "  On  my  return,  though  forced  to  stop  twenty- 
four  hours  at  Paris,  I  kept  indoors  the  whole  time,  and 
all  that  I  saw  of  that  beautiful  city  was  what  I  saw  from 
the  diligence. "  He  had  never  had  any  manner  of  associa- 
tion with  Roman  Catholics ;  had,  in  fact,  known  singularly 
little  of  them.  As  Newman  studied  and  wrote  concerning 
the  best  way  to  restore  the  Church  of  England  to  her 
proper  place  in  the  national  life,  he  kept  the  thought  be- 
fore him  "that  there  was  something  greater  than  the 
Established  Church,  and  that  that  was  the  Church  Catholic 
and  Apostolic,  set  up  from  the  beginning,  of  which  she 
was  but  the  local  presence  and  the  organ.  She  was  nothing 
unless  she  was  this.  She  must  be  dealt  with  strongly,  or 
she  would  be  lost.  There  was  need  of  a  second  Reforma- 
tion. "  At  this  time  the  idea  of  leaving  the  Church  never, 
Dr.  Newman  himself  assures  us,  had  crossed  his  imagina- 
tion. He  felt  alarmed  for  the  Church  between  German 
Rationalism  and  man-of-the-world  liberalism.  His  fear 
was  that  the  Church  would  sink  to  be  the  servile  instru- 
ment of  a  State,  and  a  Liberal  State. 
The  abilities  of  Dr.  Newman  were  hardly  surpassed  by 
Vol.  I.— II 


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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


f62 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


/,; 


any  contemporary  in  any  department  of  thought.  His 
position  and  influence  in  Oxford  were  almost  unique. 
There  was  in  his  intellectual  temperament  a  curious  com- 
bination of  the  mystic  and  the  logical.  He  was  at  once  a 
poetic  dreamer  and  a  sophist — in  the  true  and  not  the 
conupt  and  ungenerous  sense  of  the  latter  word.  It  had 
often  been  said  of  him  and  of  another  great  Englishman 
tnat  a  change  in  their  early  conditions  and  training  would 
easily  have  made  of  Newman  a  Stuart  Mill,  and  of  Mill  a 
Newman.  England,  in  our  time,  has  hardly  had  a  greater 
master  of  argument  and  of  English  prose  than  Newman. 
He  is  one  of  the  keenest  of  dialecticians;  and,  like  Mill, 
has  the  rare  art  that  dissolves  all  the  difficulties  of  the  most 
abstruse  or  perplexed  subject,  and  shows  it  bare  and  clear 
even  to  the  least  subtle  of  readers.  His  words  dispel 
mists;  and  whether  they  who  listen  agTee  or  not,  they 
cannot  fail  to  understand.  A  penetrating,  poignant,  sa- 
tirical humor  is  found  in  most  of  his  writings,  an  irony 
sometimes  piercing  suddenly  through  it  like  a  darting 
pain.  On  the  other  hand,  a  generous  vein  of  poetry  and 
of  pathos  informs  his  style;  and  t^ere  are  many  passages 
of  his  works  in  which  he  rises  to  the  height  of  a  genuine 
and  noble  eloquence. 

In  all  the  arts  that  make  a  great  preacher  or  orator  New- 
man was  strikingly  deficient.  His  manner  was  constrained, 
ungraceful,  and  even  awkward;  his  voice  was  thin  and 
weak.  His  bearing  was  not  at  first  impressive  in  any 
way.  A  gaunt,  emaciated  figure,  a  sharp  and  eagle  face, 
a  cold,  meditative  eye,  rather  repelled  than  attracted 
those  who  saw  him  for  the  first  time.  Singularly  devoid 
of  a£Eectation,  Newman  did  not  always  conceal  his  intel- 
lectual scorn  of  men  who  made  loud  pretence  with  inferior 
gifts,  and  the  men  must  have  been  few  indeed  whose  gifts 
were  not  inferior  to  his.  Newman  had  no  scorn  for  intel- 
lectual inferiority  in  itself;  he  despised  it  only  when  it 
gave  itself  airs.  His  influence  while  he  was  the  \icar  of 
St.  Mary's  at  Oxford  was  profound.     As  Mr.  Gladstone 


Movements  in  the  Cburcbes. 


163 


His 
liqiae. 
I  com- 
mce  a 
)t  the 
It  had 
shman 
would 

Mill  a 
jreater 
wman. 
e  Mill, 
le  most 
d  clear 

dispel 
t,  they 
ant,  sa- 
1  irony 
darting 
try  and 
assages 

enuine 

)r  New- 
drained, 
lin  and 
in  any 
|le  face, 
:tracted 
devoid 
intel- 
inferior 
ise  gifts 
ir  intel- 
rhen  it 
icar  of 
idstone 


said  of  him  in  a  recent  speech,  "  without  ostentation  or 
effort, but  by  simple  excellence,  he  was  continually  drawing 
undergraduates  more  and  more  around  him. "  Mr.  Glad- 
stone in  the  same  speech  gave  a  description  of  Dr.  New- 
man's pulpit  style  which  is  interesting:  "Dr.  Newman's 
manner  in  the  pulpit  was  one  which,  if  you  considered  it 
in  its  separate  parts,  would  lead  you  to  arrive  at  very  un- 
satisfactory conclusions.  There  was  not  very  much  change 
in  the  inflection  of  the  voice;  action  there  was  none;  his 
sermons  were  read,  and  his  eyes  were  always  on  his  book ; 
and  all  that,  you  will  say,  is  against  efficiency  in  preach- 
ing. Yes ;  but  you  take  the  man  as  a  whole,  and  there  was 
a  stamp  and  a  seal  upon  him,  there  was  a  solemn  music 
and  sweetness  in  his  tone,  there  was  a  completeness  in  the 
figure,  taken  together  with  the  tone  ?»nd  with  the  manner, 
which  made  even  his  delivery,  such  as  I  have  described 
it,  and  though  exclusively  with  written  sermons,  singu- 
larly attractive. "  The  stamp  and  seal  were,  indeed,  those 
which  are  impressed  by  genius,  piety,  and  earnestness. 
No  opponent  ever  spoke  of  Newman  but  with  admiration 
for  his  intellect  and  respect  for  his  character.  Dr.  New- 
man had  a  younger  brother,  Francis  W.  Newman,  who 
also  possessed  remarkable  ability  and  earnestness.  He, 
too,  was  distinguished  at  Oxford,  and  seemed  to  have  a 
great  career  there  before  him.  But  he  was  drawn  one 
way  by  the  wave  of  thought  before  his  more  famous 
brother  had  been  drawn  the  other  way.  In  1830,  the 
younger  Newman  found  himself  prevented  by  religious 
scruples  from  subscribing  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  for  his 
master's  degree.  He  left  the  university,  and  wandered 
for  years  in  the  East,  endeavoring,  not  very  successfully, 
perhaps,  to  teach  Christianity  on  its  broadest  base  to 
Mohammedans;  and  then  he  came  back  to  England  to 
take  his  place  among  the  leaders  of  a  certain  school  of 
free  thought.  Fate  had  dealt  with  those  brothers  as  with 
the  two  friends  in  Richter's  story:  it  "seized  their  bleed- 
ing hearts,  and  flung  them  diff^erent  ways." 


164 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


;■'/ 


I 


1 1 


( 


When  Dr.  Newman  wrote  the  famous  Tract  "  No.  90," 
for  which  he  was  censured,  he  bowed  to  the  authority  of 
his  bishop,  if  not  to  that  of  the  heads  of  houses;  and  he  dis- 
continued the  publication  of  such  treatises.  But  he  did 
not  admit  any  change  of  opinion ;  and,  indeed,  soon  after, 
he  edited  a  publication  called  TAe  British  Critic^  in  which 
many  of  the  principles  held  to  be  exclusively  those  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  were  enthusiastically  claimed  for  the 
English  Church.  Yet  a  little  and  the  gradual  working  of 
Newman's  mind  became  evident  to  all  the  world.  The 
brightest  and  most  penetrating  intellect  in  the  Church  of 
England  was  withdrawn  from  her  service,  and  Newman 
went  over  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  His  secession  was  de- 
scribed by  Mr.  Disraeli,  a  quarter  of  a  century  afterward, 
as  having  "  dealt  a  blow  to  the  Church  of  England  under 
which  she  still  reels."  To  this  result  had  the  inquiry 
conducted  him  which  had  led  his  friend,  Dr.  Pusey,  merely 
to  endeavor  to  incorporate  some  of  the  mysticism  and  the 
symbols  of  Rome  with  the  ritual  of  the  English  Protestant 
Church ;  which  had  brought  Keble  only  to  seek  a  more 
liberal  and  truly  Christian  temper  for  the  faith  of  the 
Protestant;  and  which  had  sent  Francis  Newman  into 
Radicalism  and  Rationalism. 

In  truth,  it  is  not  difficult  now  to  understand  how  the 
elder  Newman's  mind  became  drawn  toward  the  ancient 
Church  which  won  him  at  last.  We  can  see  from  his  own 
candid  account  of  his  earlier  sentiments  how  profoundly 
mystical  was  his  intellectual  nature,  and  how,  long  before 
he  was  conscious  of  any  such  tendency,  he  was  drawn 
toward  the  very  symbolisms  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
Pascal's  early  and  unexplained  mastery  of  mathematical 
problems  which  no  one  had  taught  him  is  not  more  sug- 
gestive in  its  ways  than  those  early  drawings  of  Catholic 
symbols  and  devices  which,  done  in  his  childhood,  New- 
man says,  surprised  and  were  inexplicable  to  him  when  he 
came  on  them  in  years  long  after.  No  place  could  be  bet- 
ter fitted  to  encourage   and  develop  this  tendency  to 


k 


Movements  in  the  Churches. 


165 


mysticism  in  c.  thoughtful  mind  than  Oxford,  with  all  its 
noble  memories  of  scholars  and  of  priests,  with  its  pictur- 
esque and  poetic  surroundings,  and  its  never-fading  medi- 
sevalism.     Newman  lived  in  the  past.     His  spirit  was 
with  medieeval  England.     His  thoughts  were  of  a  time 
when  one  Church  took  charge  of  the  souls  of  a  whole  united, 
devout  people,  and  stood  as  the  guide  and  authority  ap- 
pointed for  them  by  Heaven.     He  thought  of  such  a  time 
until  first  he  believed  in  it  as  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  next 
came  to  have  faith  in  the  possibility  of  its  restoration  as 
a  thing  of  the  present  and  the  future.     When  once  he  had 
come  to  this  point  the  rest  followed,  "  as  by  lot  God  wot. " 
No  creature  could  for  a  moment  suppose  that  that  ideal 
Church  was  to  be  found  in  the  English  Establishment, 
submitted  as  it  was  to  State-made  doctrine,  and  to  the  decis- 
ion of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  who  might  be  an  infidel  or  a 
free-liver.     The  question  which  Cardinal  Manning  tells 
us  he  asked  himself  years  after,  at  the  time  of  the  Gorham 
case,  must  often  have  presented  itself  to  the  mind  of  New- 
man— Suppose  all  the  Bishops  of  the  Church  of  England 
should  decide  unanimously  on  any  question  of  doctrine, 
would  any  one  receive  the  decision  as  infallible?    Of 
course  not.     Such  is  not  the  genius  or  the  principle  of  the 
English  Church.     The  Church  of  England  has  no  preten- 
sion to  be  considered  the  infallible  guide  of  the  people  in 
matters  even  of  doctrine.     Were  she  seriously  to  put  for- 
ward any  such  pretension,  it  would  be  rejected  with  con- 
tempt by  the  common  mind  of  the  nation.     We  are  not 
discussing  questions  of  dogma  or  the  rival  claims  of 
Churches  here ;  we  are  merely  pointing  out  that  to  a  man 
with  Newman's  idea  of  a  church,  the  Church  of  England 
could  not  long  afford  a  home.     That  very  logical  tendency, 
which  in  the  mind  of  Newman,  as  of  that  of  Pascal,  con- 
tended for  supremacy  with  the  tendency  to  devotion  and 
mysticism,  only  impelled  him  more  rigorously  on  his  way. 
He  could  not  put  up  with  compromises  and  convince  him- 
self that  he  ought  to  be  convinced.     He  dragged  every 


i66 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


'<  1' 


'.:' 


4n 


vt 


compromise  and  every  doctrine  into  the  light,  and  insisted 
on  knowing  exactly  what  it  amounted  to  and  what  it  meant 
to  say.  The  doctrines  and  compromises  of  his  own  Church 
did  not  satisfy  him.  There  are  minds  which,  in  this  con- 
dition of  bewilderment,  might  have  been  content  to  find 
"  no  footing  so  solid  as  doubt. "  Newman  had  not  a  mind 
of  that  class.  He  could  not  believe  in  a  world  without  a 
church,  or  a  church  without  what  he  held  to  be  inspiration ; 
and  accordingly  he  threw  his  whole  soul,  energy,  genius, 
and  fame  into  the  cause  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

This,  however,  did  not  come  all  at  once.  We  are 
anticipating  by  a  few  years  the  passing  over  of  Dr.  New- 
man, Cardinal  Manning,  and  others  to  the  ancient  Church. 
It  is  clear  that  Newman  was  not  himself  conscious  for  a 
long  time  of  the  manner  in  which  he  was  being  drawn, 
surely  although  not  quickly,  in  the  direction  of  Rome. 
He  used  to  be  accused  at  one  time  of  having  remained  a 
conscious  Roman  Catholic  in  the  English  Church,  laboring 
to  make  new  converts.  Apart  from  his  own  calm  assur- 
ances, and  from  the  singularly  pure  and  candid  nature  of 
the  man,  there  are  reasons  enough  to  render  such  a  charge 
absurd.  Indeed,  that  simple  and  childish  conception  of 
human  nature  which  assumes  that  a  man  must  always  see 
the  logical  consequences  of  certain  admissions  or  inquiries 
beforehand,  because  all  men  can  see  them  afterward,  is 
rather  confusing  and  out  of  place  when  we  are  considering 
such  a  crisis  of  thought  and  feeling  as  that  which  took 
place  in  Oxford,  and  such  men  as  those  who  were  princi- 
pally concerned  in  it.  For  the  present  it  is  enough  to  say 
that  the  object  of  that  movement  was  to  raise  the  Church 
of  England  from  apathy,  from  dull,  easy-going  acquies- 
cence, from  the  perfunctory  discbarge  of  formal  duties, 
and  to  quicken  her  again  with  the  spirit  of  a  priesthood, 
to  arouse  her  to  the  living  work,  spiritual  and  physical, 
of  an  ecclesiastical  sovereignty.  The  impulse  overshot 
itself  in  some  cases,  and  was  misdirected  in  others.  It 
proved  a  failure,  on  the  whole,  as  to  its  definite  aims; 


f:!! 


Movements  in  the  Churches, 


167 


and  it  sometimes  left  behind  it  only  the  ashes  of  a  barren 
symbolism.  But  in  its  source  it  was  generous,  beneficent, 
and  noble,  and  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  there  has  not  been 
throughout  the  Church  of  England,  on  the  whole,  a  higher 
spirit  at  work  since  the  famous  Oxford  movement  began. 

Still  greater  was  the  practical  importance,  at  least  in 
defined  results,  of  the!  movement  which  went  on  in  Scotland 
about  the  same  time.  A  fortnight  before  the  decision  of 
the  heads  of  houses  at  Oxford  on  Dr.  Newman's  tract, 
Lord  Aberdeen  announced  in  the  House  of  Lords  that  he 
did  not  see  his  way  to  do  anything  in  particular  with  re- 
gard to  the  dissensions  in  the  Church  of  Scotland.  He 
had  tried  a  measure,  he  said,  the  year  before,  and  half  the 
Church  of  Scotland  liked  it,  and  the  other  half  denounced 
it,  and  the  Government  opposed  it ;  and  he,  therefore,  had 
nothing  further  to  suggest  in  the  matter.  The  perplexity 
of  Lord  Aberdeen  only  faintly  typified  the  perplexity  of 
the  ministry.  Lord  Melbourne  was  about  the  last  man  in 
the  world  likely  to  have  any  sympathy  with  the  spirit 
which  animated  the  Scottish  Reformers,  or  any  notion  of 
how  to  get  out  of  the  difficulty  which  the  whole  question 
presented.  Differing  as  they  did  in  so  many  other 
points,  there  was  one  central  resemblance  between  the 
movement  in  the  Kirk  of  Scotland  and  that  which  was 
going  on  in  the  Church  of  England.  In  both  cases  alike 
the  effort  of  the  reforming  party  was  to  emancipate  the 
Church  from  the  control  of  the  State  in  matters  involving 
religious  doctrine  and  duty.  In  Scotland  was  soon  to  be 
presented  the  spectacle  of  a  great  secession  from  an  Estab- 
lished Church,  not  because  the  seceders  objected  to  the 
principle  of  a  Church,  but  because  they  held  that  the 
Establishment  was  not  faithful  enough  to  its  mission  as  a 
Church.  One  of  the  seceders  pithily  explained  the  posi- 
tion of  the  controversy  when  he  said  that  he  and  his  fel- 
lows were  leaving  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  not  because  she 
was  too  "churchy,"  but  because  she  was  not  "churchy" 
enough. 


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The  case  was  briefly  this:  During  the  reign  of  Queen 
Anne  an  Act  was  passed  which  took  from  the  Church 
courts  in  Scotland  the  free  choice  as  to  the  appointment 
of  pastors,  by  subjecting  the  power  of  the  presbytery  to 
the  control  and  interference  of  the  law  courts.  Harley, 
Bolingbroke,  and  Swift,  not  one  of  whom  cared  a  rush 
about  the  supposed  sanctity  of  an  ecclesiastical  appoint- 
ment, were  the  authors  of  this  compromise,  which  was 
exactly  of  the  kind  that  sensible  men  of  the  world  every- 
where might  be  supposed  likely  to  accept  and  approve. 
In  an  immense  number  of  Scotch  parishes  the  minister 
was  nominated  by  a  lay  patron;  and  if  the  presbytery 
found  nothing  to  condemn  in  him  as  to  "  life,  literature, 
and  doctrine, "  they  were  compelled  to  appoint  him,  how- 
ever unwelcome  he  might  be  to  the  parishioners.  Now  it 
is  obvious  that  a  man  might  have  a  blameless  character, 
sound  religious  views,  and  an  excellent  education,  and 
nevertheless  be  totally  unfitted  to  undertake  the  charge 
of  a  Scottish  parish.  The  Southwark  congregation,  who 
appreciate  and  delight  in  the  ministrations  of  Mr.  Spur- 
geon,  might  very  well  be  excused  if  they  objected  to  hav- 
ing a  perfectly  moral  Charles  Honeyman,  even  though  his 
religious  opinions  were  identical  with  those  of  their  favor- 
ite, forced  upon  them  at  the  will  of  some  aristocratic  lay 
patron.  The  effect  of  the  power  conferred  on  the  law 
courts  and  the  patron  was  simply  in  a  great  number  of 
cases  to  send  families  away  from  the  Church  of  Scotland 
and  into  voluntaryism.  The  Scotch  people  are  above  all 
others  impatient  of  any  attempt  to  force  on  them  the 
services  of  unacceptable  ministers.  Men  clung  to  the 
National  Church  as  long  as  it  was  national — that  is,  as 
long  as  it  represented  and  protected  the  sacred  claims 
of  a  deeply  religious  people.  Dissent,  or  rather  voluntary- 
ism, began  to  make  a  progress  in  Scotland  that  alarmed 
thoughtful  Churchmen.  To  get  over  the  difficulty,  the 
General  Assembly,  the  highest  ecclesiastical  court  in  Scot- 
land, and  likewise  a  sort  of  Church  Parliament,  declared 


Movements  in  the  Churches, 


169 


red 


that  a  veto  on  the  nomination   of  the  pastor  should  be 
exercised  by  the  congregation,  in  accordance  with  a  fun- 
damental law  of  the  Church  that  no  pastor  should  be  in- 
truded on  any  congregation  contrary  to  the  will  of  the 
people.    The  Veto  Act,  as  this  declaration  was  called, 
worked  well  enough  for  a  short  time,  and  the  highest  legal 
authorities  declared  it  not  incompatible  with  the  Act  of 
Queen  Anne.     But  it  diminished  far  too  seriously  the 
power  of  the  lay  patron  to  be  accepted  without  a  struggle. 
In  the  celebrated  Auchterarder  case  the  patron  won  a 
victory  over  the  Church  in  the  courts  of  law,  for  having 
presented  a  minister  whose  appointment  was  vetoed  by 
the  congregation;   he  obtained  an  order  from  the  civil 
courts  deciding  that  the  presbytery  must  take  him  on  trial, 
in  obedience  with  the  Act  of  Queen  Anne,  as  he  was  qual- 
ified by  life,  literature  and  doctrine.     This  question,  how- 
ever, was  easily  settled  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Church.    They  left  to  the  patron's  nominee  his  stipend 
and  his  house,  and  took  no  further  notice  of  him.     They 
did  not  recognize  him  as  one  of  their  pastors,  but  he  might 
have,  if  he  would,  the  manse  and  the  money  which  the 
civil  courts  had  declared  to  be  his.     They  merely  appealed 
to  the  Legislature  to  do  something  which  might  make  the 
civil  law  in  harmony  with  the  principles  of  the  Church. 
A  more  serious  question,  however,  presently  arose.    This 
was  the  famous   Strathbogie   case,   which   brought  the 
authority  of  the  Church  and  that  of  the  State  into  irrecon- 
cilable conflict.     A  minister  had  been  nominated  in  the 
parish  of  Marnoch,  who  was  so  unacceptable  to  the  con- 
gregation that  261  out  of  300  heads  of  families  objected  to 
his  appointment.     The  General  Assembly  directed  the 
presbytery  of  Strathbogie,  in  which  the  parish  lay,  to  re- 
ject the  minister,  Mr.  Edwards.     The  presbytery  had  long 
been  noted  for  its  leaning  toward  the  claims  of  the  civil 
power,  and  it  very  reluctantly  obeyed  the  command  of 
the  highest  authority  and  ruling  body  of  the  Church. 
Another  minister  was   appointed   to  the  parish.      Mr. 


r 


170 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


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Edwards  fought  the  question  out  in  the  civil  court  and 
obtained  an  interdict  against  the  new  appointment,  and  a 
decision  that  the  presbytery  were  bound  to  take  himself 
on  trial.  Seven  members,  constituting  the  majority  of 
the  presbytery,  determined,  without  consulting  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  to  obey  the  civil  power,  and  they  admitted 
Mr.  Edwards  on  trial.  The  seven  were  brought  before 
the  bar  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  by  an  overwhelming 
majority  were  condemned  to  be  deposed  from  their  places 
in  the  ministry.  Their  parishes  were  declared  vacant. 
A  more  complete  antagonism  between  Church  and  State 
is  not  possible  to  imagine.  The  Church  expelled  from  its 
ministry  seven  men  for  having  obeyed  the  command  of 
the  civil  laws. 

It  was  on  the  motion  of  Dr.  Chalmers  that  the  seven 
ministers  were  deposed.  Dr.  Chalmers  became  the  leader 
of  the  movement  which  was  destined  within  two  years 
from  the  time  we  are  now  surveying  to  cause  the  disrup- 
tion of  the  ancient  Kirk  of  Scotland.  No  man  could  be 
better  fitted  for  the  task  of  leadership  in  such  a  movement. 
He  was  beyond  comparison  the  foremost  man  in  the  Scot- 
tish Church.  He  was  the  greatest  pulpit  orator  in  Scot- 
land, or,  indeed,  in  Great  Britain.  As  a  scientific  writer, 
both  on  astronomy  and  on  political  economy,  he  had  made 
a  great  mark.  From  having  been  in  his  earlier  days  the 
minister  of  an  obscure  Scottish  village  congregation,  he 
had  suddenly  sprung  into  fame.  He  was  the  lion  of  any 
city  which  he  happened  to  visit.  If  he  preached  in  Lon- 
don, the  church  was  crowded  with  the  leaders  of  politics, 
science,  and  fashion,  eager  to  hear  him.  The  effect  he  pro- 
duced in  England  is  all  the  more  surprising  seeing  that  he 
spoke  in  the  broadest  Scottish  accent  conceivable,  and,  as 
one  admirer  admits,  mispronounced  almost  every  word. 
We  have  already  quoted  what  Mr.  Gladstone  said  about 
the  style  of  Dr.  Newman ;  let  us  cite  also  what  he  says 
about  Dr.  Chalmers.  "  I  have  heard,"  said  Mr,  Gladstone, 
•*  Dr.  Chalmers  preach  and  lecture.    Being  a  man  of  Scotch 


ni 


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171 


blood,  I  am  very  much  attached  to  Scotland,  and  like  even 
the  Scotch  accent,  but  not  the  Scotch  accent  of  Dr.  Chal- 
mers. Undoubtedly  the  accent  of  Dr.  Chalmers  in  preach- 
ing- and  delivery  was  a  considerable  impediment  to  his 
success ;  but  notwithstanding  all  that,  it  was  overborne  by 
the  power  of  the  man  in  preaching — overborne  by  his 
power,  which  melted  into  harmony  with  all  the  adjuncts 
and  incidents  of  the  man  as  a  whole,  so  much  so,  that 
although  I  would  have  said  that  the  accent  of  Dr.  Chal- 
mers was  distasteful,  yet  in  Dr.  Chalmers  himself  I  would 
not  have  had  it  altered  in  the  smallest  degree. "  Chalmers 
spoke  with  a  massive  eloquence,  in  keeping  with  his  pow- 
erful frame  and  his  broad  brow  and  his  commanding 
presence.  His  speeches  were  a  strenuous  blending  of 
argument  and  emotion.  They  appealed  at  once  to  the 
strong  common-sense  and  to  the  deep  religious  convictions 
of  his  Scottish  audiences.  His  whole  soul  was  in  his  work 
as  a  leader  of  religious  movements.  He  cared  little  or 
nothing  for  any  popularity  or  fame  that  he  might  have 
won.  Some  strong  and  characteristic  words  of  his  own 
have  told  us  what  he  thought  of  passing  renown.  He 
called  it  "  a  popularity  which  rifles  home  of  its  sweets ; 
and  by  elevating  a  man  above  his  fellows  places  him  in 
a  region  of  desolation,  where  he  stands  a  conspicuous  mark 
for  the  shafts  of  malice,  envy,  and  detraction ;  a  popularity 
which,  with  its  head  among  storms  and  its  feet  on  the 
treacherous  quicksands,  has  nothing  to  lull  the  agonies 
of  its  tottering  existence  but  the  hosannas  of  a  drivelling 
generation."  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  these  were 
Chalmers'  genuine  sentiments ;  and  scarcely  any  man  of 
his  time  had  come  into  so  sudden  and  great  an  endowment 
of  popularity.  The  reader  of  to-day  must  not  look  for 
adequate  illustration  of  the  genius  and  the  influence  of 
Chalmers  in  his  published  words.  These  do,  indeed,  show 
him  to  have  been  a  strong  reasoner  and  a  man  of  original 
mind,  but  they  do  not  show  the  Chalmers  of  Scottish  con- 
troversy ;  that  Chalmers  must  be  studied  through  the  traces, 


17a 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


1     'i\ 


I     ',  \'. ' 


lyingf  all  around,  of  his  influence  upon  the  mind  and  the 
history  of  the  Scottish  people.  The  Free  Church  of 
Scotland  is  his  monument.  He  did  not  make  that  Church. 
It  was  not  the  work  of  one  man,  or,  strictly  speaking,  of 
one  generation.  It  grew  naturally  out  of  the  inevitable 
struggle  between  Church  and  State.  But  Chalmers  did 
more  than  any  other  man  to  decide  the  moment  and  the 
manner  of  its  coming  into  existence,  and  its  success  is  his 
best  monument. 

For  we  may  anticipate  a  little  in  this  instance,  as  in  that 
of  the  Oxford  movement,  and  mention  at  once  the  fact  that 
on  May  i8th,  1843,  some  five  hundred  ministers  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Chalmers, 
seceded  from  the  old  Kirk  and  set  about  to  form  the  Free 
Church.  The  Government  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  had  made 
a  weak  effort  at  compromise  by  legislative  enactment,  but 
had  declined  to  introduce  any  legislation  which  should  free 
the  Kirk  of  Scotland  from  the  control  of  the  civil  courts, 
and  there  was  no  course  for  those  who  held  the  views  of 
Dr.  Chalmers  but  to  withdraw  from  the  Church  which 
admitted  that  claim  of  State  control.  Opinions  may  differ 
as  to  the  necessity,  the  propriety  of  the  secession — as  to 
its  effects  upon  the  history  and  the  character  of  the  Scot- 
tish people  since  that  time;  but  there  can  be  no  difference 
of  opinion  as  to  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  in  which  the  step 
was  taken.  Five  hundred  ministers  on  that  memorable 
day  went  deliberately  forth  from  their  positions  of  comfort 
and  honor,  from  home  and  competence,  to  meet  an  uncer- 
tain and  a  perilous  future,  with  perhaps  poverty  and  fail- 
ure to  be  the  final  result  of  their  enterprise,  and  with 
misconstruction  and  misrepresentation  to  make  the  bitter 
bread  of  poverty  more  bitter  still.  In  these  pages  we  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  merits  of  religious  controversies; 
and  it  is  no  part  of  our  concern  to  consider  even  the  social 
and  political  effects  produced  upon  Scotland  by  this  great 
secession.  But  we  need  not  withhold  our  admiration  from 
the  men  who  risked  and  suffered  so  much  in  the  cause  of 


n 


Movements  in  the  Churches. 


m 


what  they  believed  to  be  their  Church's  true  rights;  and 
we  are  bound  to  give  this  admiration  as  cordially  to  the 
poor  and  nameless  ministers,  the  men  of  the  rank  and  file, 
about  whose  doings  history  so  little  concerns  herself,  as 
to  the  leaders  like  Chalmers,  who,  whether  they  sought 
it  or  not,  found  fame  shining  on  their  path  of  self-sacrifice. 
The  history  of  Scotland  is  illustrated  by  many  great 
national  deeds.  No  deed  it  telln  of  surpasses  in  dignity 
and  in  moral  grandeur  that  secession — to  cite  the  words  of 
the  protest — '*  from  an  Establishment  which  we  loved  and 
prized,  through  interference  with  conscience,  the  dishonor 
done  to  Christ's  crown,  and  the  rejection  of  his  sole  and 
supreme  authority  as  King  in  his  Church." 


CHAPTER  XI. 


THE   DISASTERS   OF  CABUL. 


'•  m 


ill;  !•; 


The  earliest  days  of  the  Peel  Ministry  fell  upon  trouble, 
not  indeed  at  home,  but  abroad.  At  home  the  prospect 
still  seemed  bright.  The  birth  of  the  Queen's  eldest  son 
was  an  event  welcomed  by  national  congjratulation.  There 
was  still  great  distress  in  the  agricultural  districts;  but 
there  was  a  general  confidence  that  the  financial  genius  of 
Peel  would  quickly  find  some  way  to  make  burdens  light, 
and  that  the  condition  of  things  all  over  the  country  would 
begin  to  mend.  It  was  a  region  far  removed  from  the 
knowledge  and  the  thoughts  of  most  Englishmen  that 
supplied  the  news  now  beginning  to  come  into  England 
day  after  day,  and  to  thrill  the  country  with  the  tale  of 
one  of  the  greatest  disasters  to  English  policy  and  English 
arms  to  be  found  in  all  the  record  of  our  dealings  with  the 
East.  There  are  many  still  living  who  can  recall  with  an 
impression  as  keen  as  though  it  belonged  to  yesterday  the 
first  accounts  that  reached  this  country  of  the  surrender 
at  Cabul,  and  the  gradual  extinction  of  the  army  that  tried 
to  make  its  retreat  through  the  terrible  Pass. 

This  grim  chapter  of  history  had  been  for  some  time  in 
preparation.  It  may  be  said  to  open  with  the  reign  itself. 
News  txavelled  slowly  then ;  and  it  was  quite  in  the  ordi- 
nary course  of  things  that  some  part  of  the  empire  might 
be  torn  with  convulsion  for  months  before  London  knew 
that  the  even  and  ordinary  condition  of  things  had  been 
disturbed.  In  this  instance  the  rejoicings  at  the  accession 
of  the  young  Queen  were  still  going  on  when  a  series  of 
events  had  begun  in  Central  Asia,  destined  to  excite  the 
profoucdest  emotion  in  England,  and  to  exercise  the  most 


The  Disasters  of  Cabul. 


«75 


powerful  influence  upon  our  foreign  policy  down  to  the 
present  hour.  On  September  20th,  1837,  Captain  Alex- 
ander Bumes  arrived  at  Cabul,  the  capital  of  the  State  of 
Cabul,  in  the  north  of  Afghanistan,  and  the  ancient  capi- 
tal of  the  Emperor  Baber,  whose  tomb  is  on  a  hill  outside 
the  city,  bames  was  a  famous  Orientalist  and  traveller, 
the  Burton  or  Burnaby  of  his  day ;  he  had  conducted  an 
expedition  into  Central  Asia;  had  published  his  travels 
in  Bokhara,  and  had  been  sent  on  a  mission  by  the  Indian 
Government,  in  whose  service  he  was,  to  study  the  navi- 
gation of  the  Indus.  He  was,  it  may  be  remarked,  a 
member  of  the  family  of  Robert  Burns,  the  poet  himself 
having  changed  the  original  spelling  of  the  name  which 
all  the  other  members  of  the  family  retained.  T/ie  object 
of  the  journey  of  Captain  Burnes  to  Cabul  in  1837  v-'as,  in 
the  first  instance,  to  enter  into  commercial  relations  with 
Dost  Mahomed,  then  ruler  of  Cabul,  and  with  other  chiefs 
of  the  western  regions.  But  events  soon  changed  his  busi- 
ness from  a  commercial  into  a  political  and  diplomatic 
mission ;  and  his  tragic  fate  would  make  his  journey  mem- 
orable to  Englishmen  forever,  even  if  other  events  had  not 
grown  out  of  it  which  give  it  a  place  of  more  than  personal 
importance  in  history. 

The  great  region  of  Afghanistan,  with  its  historical  boun- 
daries as  varying  and  difficult  to  fix  at  certain  times  as 
those  of  the  old  Dukedom  of  Burgundy,  has  been  called 
the  land  of  transition  between  Eastern  and  Western  Asia. 
All  the  great  ways  that  lead  from  Persia  to  India  pass 
through  that  region.  There  is  a  proverb  which  declares 
that  no  one  can  be  king  of  Hindostan  without  first  becom- 
ing lord  of  Cabul.  The  Afghans  are  the  ruling  nation, 
but  among  them  had  long  been  settled  Hindoos,  Arabs, 
Armenians,  Abyssinians,  and  men  of  other  races  and  relig- 
ions. The  Afghans  are  Mohammedans  of  the  Shunite 
sect,  but  they  allowed  Hindoos,  Christians,  and  even  the 
Persians,  who  are  of  the  hated  dissenting  sect  of  the 
Shiites,  to  live  among  them,  and  even  to  I'se  to  high  posi- 


176 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


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tion  and  influence.  The  founder  of  the  Afghan  Empire, 
Ahmed  Shah,  died  in  1773.  He  had  made  an  empire 
which  stretched  from  Herat  on  the  west  to  Sirhind  on  the 
east,  and  from  the  Oxus  and  Cashmere  on  the  north  to  the 
Arabian  Sea  and  the  mouths  of  the  Indus  on  the  south. 
The  death  of  his  son,  Timur  Shah,  delivered  the  kingdom 
up  to  the  hostile  factions,  intrigues,  and  quarrels  of  his 
sons :  the  leaders  of  a  powerful  tribe,  the  Barukzyes,  took 
advantage  of  the  events  that  arose  out  of  this  condition  of 
things  to  dethrone  the  descendants  of  Ahmed  Shah.  When 
Captain  Burnes  visited  Afghanistan  in  1832,  the  only 
part  of  all  their  great  inheritance  which  yet  remained  with 
the  descendants  of  Ahmed  Shah  was  the  principality  of 
Herat.  The  remainder  of  Afghanistan  was  parcelled  out 
between  Dost  Mahomed  and  his  brothers.  Dost  Mahomed 
was  a  man  of  extraordinary  ability  and  energy.  He  would 
probably  have  made  a  name  as  a  soldier  and  a  statesman 
anywhere.  He  had  led  a  stormy  youth,  biit  had  put  away 
with  maturity  and  responsibility  the  vices  and  follies  of  his 
earlier  years.  There  seems  no  reason  to  rioubt  that,  although 
he  was  a  usurper,  he  was  a  sincere  lover  of  his  country, 
and  on  the  whole  a  wise  and  just  ruler.  When  Captain 
Burnes  visited  Dcct  Mahomed,  he  was  received  with  every 
mark  of  friendship  and  favor.  Dost  Mahomed  professed 
to  be,  and  no  doubt  at  one  time  was,  a  sincere  friend  of 
the  English  Government  and  people.  There  was,  how- 
ever, at  that  time  a  quarrel  going  on  between  the  Shah  of 
Persia  and  the  Prince  of  Herat,  the  last  enthroned  repre- 
sentative, as  has  been  already  said,  of  the  great  family  on 
whose  fall  Dost  Mahomed  and  his  brothers  had  mounted 
into  power.  So  far  as  can  now  be  judged,  there  does  seem 
to  have  been  serious  and  genuine  ground  of  complaint  on 
the  part  of  Persia  against  the  ruler  of  Herat.  But  it  is 
probable,  too,  that  the  Persian  Shah  had  been  seeking  for, 
and  in  any  case  would  have  found,  a  pretext  for  making 
war;  and  the  strong  impression  at  the  time  in  England, 
and  among  the  authorities  in  India,  was  that  Persia  her- 


The  Disasters  of  CabuL 


177 


self  was  but  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  Russia.  A  glance 
at  the  map  will  show  the  meaning  of  this  suspicion  and 
the  reasons  which  at  once  gave  it  plausibility,  and  would 
have  rendered  it  of  grave  importance.  If  JPersla  were 
merely  the  instrument  of  Russia,  and  if  the  troops  of  the 
Shah  were  only  the  advance-gfuard  of  the  Czar,  then,  un- 
doubtedly, the  attack  on  Herat  might  have  been  regarded 
as  the  first  step  of  a  great  movement  of  Russia  toward  our 
Indian  dominion. 

There  were  other  reasons,  too,  to  give  this  suspicion 
some  plausibility.  Mysterious  agents  of  Russia,  officers 
in  her  service  and  others,  began  to  show  themselves  in 
Central  Asia  at  the  time  of  Captain  Burnes'  visit  to  Dost 
Mahomed.  Undoubtedly  Russia  did  set  herself  for  some 
reason  to  win  the  friendship  and  alliance  of  Dost  Mahomed ; 
and  Captain  Burnes  was  for  his  part  engaged  in  the  same 
endeavor.  All  considerations  of  a  merely  commercial 
nature  had  long  since  been  put  away,  and  Burnes  was 
freely  and  earnestly  negotiating  with  Dost  Mahomed  for 
his  alliance,  Burnes  always  insisted  that  Dost  Mahomed 
himself  was  sincerely  anxious  to  become  an  ally  of  Eng- 
land, and  that  he  offered  more  than  once,  on  his  own  free 
part,  to  dismiss  the  Russian  agents  even  without  seeing 
them,  if  Burnes  desired  him  to  do  so.  But  for  some  rea- 
son Burnes'  superiors  did  not  sl-are  his  confidence.  In 
Downing  Street  and  in  Simla  the  profoundest  distrust  of 
Dost  Mahomed  prevailed.  It  was  again  and  again  im- 
pressed on  Burnes  that  he  must  regard  Dost  Mahomed  as 
a  treacherous  enemy,  and  as  a  man  playing  the  part  of 
Persia  and  of  Russia.  It  is  impossible  now  to  estimate 
fairly  all  the  reasons  which  may  have  justified  the  English 
and  the  Indian  Governments  in  this  conviction.  But  we 
know  that  nothing  in  the  policy  afterward  followed  out  by 
the  Indian  authorities  exhibited  any  of  the  judgment  and 
wisdom  that  would  warrant  vl^  in  taking  anything  for 
granted  on  the  mere  faith  of  their  dictum.  The  story  of  four 
years — almost  to  a  day  the  extent  of  this  sad  chapter  of  Eng- 
VoL.  I.— 12 


■78 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


If"  , 


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i  ^''■ 

i:  ; : 

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■1 '' 

;";  X   '             '  •'    ^ 

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1.' 

lish  history — will  be  a  tale  of  such  misfortune,  blunder,  and 
humiliation  as  the  annals  of  England  do  not  anywhere  else 
present.  Blunders  which  were,  indeed,  worse  than  crimes, 
and  a  principle  of  action  which  it  is  a  crime  in  any  rulers 
to  sanction,  brought  things  to  such  a  pass  with  us  that  in 
a  few  years  from  the  accession  of  the  Queen  we  had  in 
Afghanistan  soldiers  who  were  positively  afraid  to  fight 
the  enemy,  and  some  English  officials  who  were  not 
ashamed  to  treat  for  the  removal  of  our  most  formidable 
foes  by  purchased  assassination.  It  is  a  good  thing  for  us 
all  to  read  in  cold  blood  this  chapter  of  our  history.  It 
will  teach  us  how  vain  is  a  policy  founded  on  evil  and 
ignoble  principles ;  how  vain  is  the  strength  and  courage 
of  men  when  they  have  not  leaders  fit  to  command.  It 
may  teach  us,  also,  not  to  be  too  severe  in  our  criticism  of 
other  nations.  The  failure  of  the  French  invasion  of  Mex- 
ico under  the  Second  Empire  seems  like  glory  when  com- 
pared with  the  failure  of  our  attempt  to  impose  a  hated 
sovereign  on  the  Afghan  people. 

Captain  Burnes  then  was  placed  in  the  painful  difficulty 
of  having  to  carry  out  a  policy  of  which  he  entirely  disap- 
proved. He  believed  in  Dost  Mahomed  as  a  friend,  and 
he  was  ordered  to  regard  him  as  an  enemy.  It  would  have 
been  better  for  the  career  and  for  the  reputation  of  Burnes 
if  he  had  simply  declined  to  have  anything  to  do  with  a 
course  of  action  which  seemed  to  him  at  once  unjust  and 
unwise.  But  Burnes  was  a  young  man,  full  of  youth's  en- 
ergy and  ambition.  He  thought  he  saw  a  career  of  dis- 
tinction opening  before  him,  and  he  was  unwilling  to  close 
it  abruptly  by  setting  himself  in  obstinate  opposition  to  his 
superiors.  He  was,  besides,  of  a  quick  mercurial  temper- 
ament, over  which  mood  followed  mood  in  rapid  succession 
of  change.  A  slight  contradiction  sometimes  threw  him 
into  momentary  despondency ;  a  gleam  of  hope  elated  him 
into  the  assurance  that  all  was  won.  It  is  probable  that 
after  awhile  he  may  have  persuaded  himself  to  acquiesce 
in  the  judgment  of  his  chiefs.     On  the  other  hand,  Dost 


The  Disasters  of  Cabul. 


179 


Mahomed  was  placed  in  a  position  of  great  difficulty  and 
danger.  He  had  to  choose.  He  could  not  remain  abso> 
lutely  independent  of  all  the  disputants.  If  England 
would  not  support  him,  he  must  for  his  own  safety  find 
alliances  elsewhere — in  Russian  statecraft,  for  example. 
He  told  Bumes  of  this  again  and  again,  and  Bumes  en- 
deavored, without  the. slightest  success,  to  impress  his  su- 
periors with  his  own  views  as  to  the  reasonableness  of  Dost 
Mahomed's  arguments.  Runjeet  Singh,  the  daring  and 
successful  adventurer  who  had  annexed  the  whole  province 
of  Cashmere  to  his  dominions,  was  the  enemy  of  Dost  Ma- 
homed and  the  faithful  ally  of  England.  Dost  Mahomed 
thought  the  British  Government  could  assist  him  in  com- 
ing to  terms  with  Runjeet  Singh,  and  Bumes  had  assured 
him  that  the  British  Government  would  do  all  it  could  to 
establish  satisfactory  terms  of  peace  between  Afghanistan 
and  the  Pun  j  aub,  over  which  Run j  eet  Singh  ruled.  Bumes 
wrote  from  Cabul  to  say  that  Russia  had  made  substantial 
offers  to  Dost  Mahomed;  Persia  had  been  lavish  in  her 
biddings  for  his  alliance ;  Bokhara  and  other  states  had 
not  been  backward ;  "  yet  in  all  that  has  passed,  or  is  daily 
transpiring,  the  chief  of  Cabul  declares  that  he  prefers  the 
sympathy  and  friendly  offices  of  the  British  to  all  these 
offers,  however  alluring  they  may  seem,  from  Persia  or 
from  the  Emperor ;  which  places  his  good  sense  in  a  light 
more  than  prominent,  and  in  my  humble  judgment  proves 
that  by  an  earlier  attention  to  these  countries  we  might 
have  escaped  the  whole  of  these  intrigues  and  held  long 
since  a  stable  influence  in  Cabul. "  Burnes,  however,  was 
unable  to  impress  his  superiors  with  any  belief  either  in 
Dost  Mahomed  or  in  the  policy  which  he  himself  advo- 
cated, and  the  result  was  that  Lord  Auckland,  the  Gover- 
nor-general of  India,  at  length  resolved  to  treat  Dost  Ma- 
homed as  an  enemy,  and  to  drive  him  from  Cabul.  Lord 
Auckland,  therefore,  entered  into  a  treaty  with  Runjeet 
Singh  and  Shah  Soojah-ool-Moolk,  the  exiled  representa- 
tive of  what  we  may  call  the  legitimist  rulers  of  Afghani- 


r~ 


h  1/ 


i    I 


W 


n 


180 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


Stan,  for  the  restoration  of  the  latter  to  the  throne  of  his 
ancestors,  and  for  the  destruction  of  the  power  of  Dost 
Mahomed. 

It  ought  to  be  a  waste  of  time  to  enter  into  any  argu- 
ment in  condemnation  of  such  a  policy  in  our  days.  Even 
if  its  results  had  not  proved  in  this  particular  instance  its 
most  striking  and  exemplary  condemnation,  it  is  so  grossly 
and  flagrantly  opposed  to  all  the  principles  of  our  more 
modem  statesmanship  that  no  one  among  us  ought  now  to 
need  a  warning  against  it.  Dost  Mahomed  was  the  ac- 
cepted, popular,  and  successful  ruler  of  Cabul.  No  matter 
what  our  quarrel  with  him,  we  had  not  the  slightest  right 
to  make  it  an  excuse  for  forcing  on  his  people  a  ruler 
whom  they  had  proved  before,  as  they  were  soon  to  prove 
again,  that  they  thoroughly  detested.  Perhaps  the  nearest 
parallel  to  our  policy  in  this  instance  is  to  be  found  in  the 
French  invasion  of  Mexico,  and  the  disastrous  attempt  to 
impose  a  loreign  ruler  on  the  Mexican  people.  Each  ex- 
periment ended  in  utter  failure,  and  in  the  miserable  death 
of  the  unfortunate  puppet  prince  who  was  put  forward  as 
the  figure-head  of  the  enterprise.  But  the  French  Emperor 
could  at  least  have  pleaded  in  his  defence  that  Maximilian 
of  Austria  had  not  already  been  tried  and  rejected  by  the 
Mexican  people.  Our  prof/g^  had  been  tried  and  rejected. 
The  French  Emperor  might  have  pleaded  that  he  had  ac- 
tual and  substantial  wrongs  to  avenge.  We  had  only  prob- 
lematical and  possible  dangers  to  guard  against.  In  any 
case,  as  has  been  already  said,  the  calamities  entailed  on 
French  arms  and  counsels  by  the  Mexican  intervention 
read  like  a  page  of  brilliant  success  when  compared  with 
the  immediate  result  of  our  enterprise  in  Cabul.  Before 
passing  away  from  this  part  of  the  subject,  it  is  necessary 
to  mention  the  fact  that  among  its  many  unfortunate  in- 
cidents the  campaign  led  to  some  peculiarly  humiliating 
debates  and  some  lamentable  accusations  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  Years  after  Burnes  had  been  flung  into  his 
bloody  grave,  it  was  found  that  the  English  Government 


The  Disasters  of  Cahul, 


i8i 


had  presented  to  the  House  of  Commons  his  despatches  in 
so  mutilated  and  altered  a  form  that  Bumes  was  made  to 
seem  as  if  he  actually  approved  and  recommended  the 
policy  which  he  especially  warned  us  to  avoid.    It  is  pain- 
ful to  have  to  record  such  a  fact,  but  it  is  indispensable 
that  it  should  be  recorded.     It  would  be  vain  to  attempt 
to  explain  how  the  principles  and  the  honor  of  English 
statesmanship  fell,  for  the  hour,  under  the  demoralizing  in- 
fluence which  allowed  such  things  to  be  thought  legiti- 
mate.    An  Oriental  atmosphere  seemed  to  have  gathered 
around  our  official  leaders.     In  Afghanistan  they  were  en- 
tering into  secret  and  treacherous  treaties;  in  England 
they  were  garbling  despatches.     When,  years  after,  Lord 
Palmerston  was  called  upon  to  defend  the  policy  which 
had  thus  dealt  with  the  despatches  of  Alexander  Bumes, 
he  did  not  say  that  the  documents  were  not  garbled.     He 
only  contended  that,  as  the  Government  had  determined 
not  to  act  on  the  advice  of  Burnes,  they  were  in  no  wise 
bound  to  publish  those  passages  of  his  despatches  in  which 
he  set  forth  assumptions  which  they  believed  to  be  un- 
founded, and  advised  a  policy  which  they  looked  upon  as 
mistaken.     Such  a  defence  is  only  to  be  read  with  wonder 
and  pain.     The   Government  were  not  accused  of  sup- 
pressing passages  which  they  believed,  rightly  or  wrongly, 
to  be  worthless.     The  accusation  was  that,  by  suppressing 
passages  and  sentences  here  and  there,  Burnes  was  made 
to  appear  as  if  he  were  actually  recommending  the  policy 
against  which  he  was  at  the  time  most  earnestly  protest- 
ing.    Burnes  was  himself  the  first  victim  of  the  policy 
which  he  strove  against,  and  which  all  England  has  since 
condemned.     No  severer  word  is  needed  to  condemn  the 
mutilation  of  his  despatches  than  to  say  that  he  was  actu- 
ally made  to  stand  before  the  country  as  responsible  for 
having  recommended  that  very  policy.     "  It  should  never 
be  forgotten,"  says  Sir  J.  W.  Kaye,  the  historian  of  the 
Afghan  War,  *'  by  those  who  would  form  a  correct  estimate 
of  the  character  and  career  of  Alexander  Bumes,  that 


:i 


•i.» 


11 


1 


182 


j4  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


both  had  been  misrepresented  in  those  collections  of  State 
papers  which  are  supposed  to  furnish  the  best  materials  of 
history,  but  which  are  often  in  reality  only  one-sided  com- 
pilations of  garbled  documents — counterfeits,  which  the 
ministerial  stamp  forces  into  currency,  defrauding  a  pres- 
ent generation,  and  handing  down  to  posterity  a  chain  of 
dangerous  lies. " 

Meanwhile  the  Persian  attack  on  Herat  had  practically 
failed,  owing  mainly  to  the  skill  and  spirit  of  a  young 
English  officer,  Eldred  Pottinger,  who  was  assisting  the 
prince  in  his  resistance  to  the  troops  of  the  Persian  Shah. 
Lord  Auckland,  however,  ordered  the  assemblage  of  a 
British  force  for  service  across  the  Indus,  and  issued  a  fa- 
mous manifesto,  dated  from  Simla,  October  1st,  1838,  in 
which  he  set  forth  the  motives  of  his  policy.  The  Gov- 
ernor-general stated  that  Dost  Mahomed  had  made  a  sud- 
den and  unprovoked  attack  upon  our  ancient  ally,  Run- 
jeet  Singh,  and  that  when  the  Persian  army  was  besieging 
Herat,  Dost  Mahomed  was  giving  undisguised  support  to 
the  designs  of  Persia.  The  chiefs  of  Candahar,  the 
brothers  of  Dost  Mahomed,  had  also.  Lord  Auckland  de- 
clared, given  in  their  adherence  to  the  plan  of  Persia. 
Great  Britain  regarded  the  advance  of  Persian  arms  in 
Afghanistan  as  an  act  of  hostility  toward  herself.  The 
Governor-general  had,  therefore,  resolved  to  support  the 
claims  of  the  Shah  Soojah-ool-Moolk,  whose  dominions 
had  been  usurped  by  the  existing  rulers  of  Cabul,  and 
who  had  found  an  honorable  asylum  in  British  territory; 
and  "whose  popularity  throughout  Afghanistan" — Lord 
Auckland  wrote  in  words  that  must  afterward  have  read 
like  the  keenest  and  crudest  satire  upon  his  policy — 
"  had  been  proved  to  his  Lordship  by  the  strong  and  unani- 
mous testimony  of  the  best  authorities."  This  popular 
sovereign,  this  favorite  of  his  people,  was  at  the  time  liv- 
ing in  exile,  without  the  faintest  hope  of  ever  again  be- 
ing restored  to  his  dominions.  We  pulled  the  poor  man 
out  of  his  obscurity,  told  him  that  his  people  were  yearning 


The  Disasters  of  Cabut. 


183 


for  him,  and  that  we  would  set  him  on  his  throne  once 
more.  We  entered  for  the  purpose  into  the  tripartite 
treaty  already  mentioned.  Mr.  (afterward  Sir  W.  H.) 
Macnaghten,  Secretary  to  the  Government  of  India,  was 
appointed  to  be  envoy  and  minister  at  the  court  of  Shah 
Soojah ;  and  Sir  Alexander  Burnes  (who  had  been  recalled 
from  the  court  of  Dost  Mahomed,  and  rewarded  with  a 
title  for  giving  tt  advice  which  his  superiors  thought  ab- 
surd) was  deputed  to  act  under  his  direction.  It  is  only 
right  to  say  that  the  policy  of  Lord  Auckland  had  the  en- 
tire approval  of  the  British  Government.  It  was  after- 
ward stated  in  Parliament  on  the  part  of  the  ministry  that 
a  despatch  recommendng  to  Lord  Auckland  exactly  such 
a  course  as  he  pursued  crossed  on  the  way  his  despatch 
announcing  to  the  Government  at  home  that  he  had  already 
undertaken  the  enterprise. 

We  conquered  Dost  Mahomed  and  dethroned  him.  He 
made  a  bold  and  brilliant,  sometimes  even  a  splendid  re- 
sistance. We  took  Ghuznee  by  blowing  up  one  of  its  gates 
with  bags  of  powder,  and  thus  admitting  the  rush  of  a 
storming-party.  It  was  defended  by  one  of  the  sons  of 
Dost  Mahomed,  who  became  our  prisoner.  We  took 
Jellalabad,  which  was  defended  by  Akbar  Khan,  another 
of  Dost  Mahomed's  sons,  whose  name  came  afterward  to 
have  a  hateful  sound  in  all  English  ears.  As  we  ap- 
proached Cabul,  Dost  Mahomed  abandoned  his  capital  and 
fled  with  a  few  horsemen  across  the  Indus.  Shah  Soojah 
entered  Cabul  accompanied  by  the  British  officers.  It  was 
to  have  been  a  triumphal  entry.  The  hearts  of  those  who 
believed  in  his  cause  must  have  sunk  within  them  when 
they  saw  how  the  Shah  was  received  by  the  people  who. 
Lord  Auckland  was  assured,  were  so  devoted  to  him.  The 
city  received  him  in  sullen  silence.  Few  of  its  peopl*?  con- 
descended even  to  turn  out  to  see  him  as  he  passed.  The 
vast  majority  stayed  away,  and  disdained  even  to  look  at 
him.  One  would  have  thought  that  the  least  observant 
eye  must  have  seen  that  his  throne  could  not  last  a  moment 


I  §4 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


n  i 


h  ■* 


longer  than  the  time  during  which  the  strength  of  Britain 
was  willing  to  support  it.  The  British  army,  however, 
withdrew,  leaving  only  ,'.  contingent  of  some^  eight  thou- 
sand men,  besides  the  3hah's  own  hirelings,  to  maintain 
him  for  the  present.  Sir  W.  Macnaghten  seems  to  have 
really  believed  that  the  work  was  done,  and  that  Shah 
Soojah  was  as  safe  on  his  throne  as  Queen  Victoria.  He 
was  destined  to  be  very  soon  and  very  cruelly  undeceived. 
Dost  Mahomed  made  more  than  one  effort  to  regain  his 
place.  He  invaded  Shah  Soojah's  dominions,  and  met  the 
combined  forces  of  the  Shah  and  their  English  ally  in 
more  than  one  battle.  On  November  ad,  1840,  he  won 
the  admiration  of  the  English  themselves  by  the  brilliant 
stand  he  made  against  them.  With  his  Afghan  horse  he 
drove  our  cavalry  before  him,  and  forced  them  to  seek  the 
shelter  of  the  British  guns.  The  native  troopers  would 
not  stand  against  him ;  they  fled,  and  left  their  English 
officers,  who  vainly  tried  to  rally  them.  In  this  battle  of 
Purwandurrah  victory  might  not  unreasonably  have  been 
claimed  for  Dost  Mahomed.  He  won  at  least  his  part  of 
the  battle.  No  tongues  have  praised  him  louder  than  those 
of  English  historians.  But  Dost  Mahomed  had  the  wis- 
dom of  a  statesman  as  well  as  the  genius  of  a  .soldier.  He 
knew  well  that  he  could  not  hold  out  against  the  strength 
of  England.  A  savage  or  semi-barbarous  chieftain  is 
easily  puffed  up  by  a  seeming  triumph  over  a  great  Power, 
and  is  led  to  his  destruction  by  the  vain  hope  that  he  can 
hold  out  against  it  to  the  last.  Dost  Mahomed  had  no 
such  ignorant  and  idle  notion.  Perhaps  he  knew  well 
enough,  too,  that  time  was  wholly  on  his  side ;  that  he  had 
only  to  wait  and  see  the  sovereignty  of  Shah  Soojah  tum- 
ble into  pieces.  The  evening  after  his  brilliant  exploit 
in  the  field  Dost  Mahomed  rode  quietly  to  the  quarters  of 
Sir  W.  Macnaghten,  met  the  envoy,  who  was  returning 
from  an  evening  ride,  and  to  Macnaghten 's  utter  amaze- 
men';  announced  himself  as  Dost  Mahomed,  tendered  to  the 
envoy  the  sword  that  had  flashed  so  splendidly  across  the 


The  Disasters  of  Cabul. 


185 


f  Britain 
lowever, 
ht  thou- 
naintain 
to  have 
at  Shah 
■ia.     He 
eceived. 
?ain  his 
met  the 
ally  in 
he  won 
Drilliant 
lorse  he 
seek  the 
s  would 
English 
>attle  of 
^e  been 
part  of 
n  those 
le  wis- 
r.     He 
rength 
tain  is 
Power, 
he  can 
had  no 
V  well 
le  had 
1  tum- 
xploit 
ters  of 
irning 
itnaze- 
tothe 
ss  the 


field  of  the  previous  day's  fight,  and  surrendered  himself 
a  prisoner.  His  sword  was  returned ;  he  was  treated  with 
all  honor ;  and  a  few  days  afterward  he  was  sent  to  India, 
where  a  residence  and  a  revenue  were  assigned  to  him. 

But  the  withdrawal  of  Dost  Mahomed  from  the  scene 
did  nothing  to  secure  the  reign  of  the  unfortunate  Shah 
Soojah.  The  Shah  was  hated  on  his  own  account.  He 
was  regarded  as  a  traitor  who  had  sold  his  country  to  the 
foreigners.  Insurrections  began  to  be  chronic.  They 
were  g«.'.ng  on  in  the  very  midst  of  Cabul  itself.  Sir  W. 
Macnaghten  was  warned  of  danger,  but  seemed  to  take  no 
heed.  Some  fatal  blindness  appears  to  have  suddenly 
fallen  on  the  eyes  of  our  people  in  Cabul.  On  November 
2d,  1 84 1,  an  insurrection  broke  out.  Sir  Alexander  Bumes 
lived  in  the  city  itself ;  Sir  W.  Macnaghten  and  the  military 
commander.  Major-general  Elphinstone,  were  in  canton- 
ments at  some  little  distance.  The  insurrection  might 
have  been  put  down  in  the  first  instance  with  hardly  the 
need  even  of  Napoleon's  famous  "whifl  of  grape-shot." 
But  it  was  allowed  to  grow  up  without  attempt  at  control. 
Sir  Alexander  Bumes  could  not  be  got  to  believe  that  it 
was  anything  serious,  even  when  a  fanatical  and  furious 
mob  were  besieging  his  own  house.  The  fanatics  were 
especially  bitter  against  Bumes,  because  they  believed 
that  he  had  been  guilty  of  treachery.  They  accused  him 
of  having  pretended  to  be  the  friend  of  Dost  Mahomed, 
deceived  him,  and  brought  the  English  into  the  country. 
How  entirely  innocent  of  this  charge  Burnes  was  we  all 
now  know ;  but  it  would  be  idle  to  deny  that  there  was 
much  in  the  external  aspect  of  events  to  excuse  such  a  sus- 
picion in  the  mind  of  an  infuriated  Afghan,  To  the  last 
Burnes  refused  to  believe  that  he  was  in  danger.  He  had 
always  been  a  friend  to  the  Afghans,  he  said,  and  he  could 
have  nothing  to  fear.  It  was  true.  He  had  always  been 
the  sincere  friend  of  the  Afghans,  It  was  his  misfortune, 
and  the  heavy  fault  of  his  superiors,  that  he  had  been  made 
to  appear  as  an  enemy  of  the  Afghans.     He  had  now  to 


186 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


M     V 


pay  a  heavy  penalty  for  the  errors  and  the  wrong-doing  of 
others.  He  harangued  the  raging  mob,  and  endeavored 
to  bring  them  to  reason.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  un- 
derstood, up  to  the  very  last  moment,  that  by  reminding 
them  that  he  was  Alexander  Bumes,  their  old  friend,  he 
was  only  giving  them  a  new  reason  for  demanding  his  life. 
He  was  murdered  in  the  tumult.  He  and  his  brother  and 
all  those  with  them  were  hacked  to  pieces  with  Afghan 
knives.  He  was  only  in  his  thirty-seventh  year  when  he 
was  murdered.  He  was  the  first  victim  of  the  policy  which 
had  resolved  to  intervene  in  the  affairs  of  Afghanistan. 
Fate  seldom  showed  with  more  strange  and  bitter  malice 
her  proverbial  irony  than  when  she  made  him  the  first 
victim  of  the  policy  adopted  in  despite  of  his  ber>t  advice 
and  his  strongest  warnings. 

The  murder  of  Burnes  was  not  a  climax ;  it  was  only  a 
beginning.  The  English  troops  were  quartered  in  canton- 
ments outside  the  city,  and  at  some  little  distance  from  it. 
These  cant  nments  were,  in  any  case  of  real  difficulty, 
practically  indefensible.  The  popular  monarch,  the  dar- 
ling of  his  people,  whom  we  had  restored  to  his  throne, 
was  in  the  Balla  Hissar,  or  citadel  of  Cabul.  From  the  mo- 
ment when  the  insurrection  broke  out  he  may  be  regarded 
as  a  prisoner  or  a  besieged  man  there.  He  was  as  utterly 
unable  to  help  our  people  as  they  were  to  help  him.  The 
whole  country  threw  itself  into  insurrection  against  him 
and  us.  The  Afghans  attacked  the  cantonments,  and  ac- 
tually compelled  the  English  to  abandon  the  forts  in  which 
all  our  commissariat  was  stored.  We  were  thus  threat- 
ened with  famine,  even  if  we  could  resist  the  enemy  in 
arms.  We  were  strangely  unfortunate  in  our  civil  and 
military  leaders.  Sir  W.  Macnaghten  was  a  man  of  high 
character  and  good  purpose,  but  he  was  weak  and  credu- 
lous. The  commander.  General  Elphinstone,  was  old,  in- 
firm, tortured  by  disease,  broken  down  both  in  mind  and 
body,  incapable  of  forming  a  purpose  of  his  own,  or  of 
holding  to  one  suggested  by  anybody  else.     His  second  in 


The  Disasters  of  Cabul. 


187 


doinsf  of 
leavored 
lave  un- 
tninding 
lend,  he 
his  life, 
ther  and 
Afghan 
vhen  he 
y  which 
anistan. 
■  malice 
the  first 
'.  advice 

s  only  a 

canton- 

from  it. 

fficulty, 

he  dar- 

throne, 

the  mo- 

garded 

utterly 

The 

St  him 

ind  ac- 

which 

threat- 

my  in 

'il  and 

high 
credu- 
Id,  in- 
d  and 

or  of 
Dndin 


command  was  a  far  stronger  and  abler  man,  but  unhap- 
pily the  two  could  never  agree.  "They  v/ere  both  of 
them,"  says  Sir  J.  W.  Kaye,  "brave  men.  In  any  other 
situation,  though  the  physical  infirmities  of  the  one  and 
the  cankered  vanity,  the  dogmatical  perverseness  of  the 
other,  might  have  in  some  measure  detracted  from  their 
efficiency  as  military  commanders,  I  believe  they  would 
have  exhibited  sufficient  courage  and  constancy  to  rescue 
an  army  from  utter  destruction,  and  the  British  name  from 
indelible  reproach.  But  in  the  Cabul  cantonments  they 
v/ere  miserably  out  of  place.  They  seem  to  have  been 
sent  there,  by  superhuman  intervention,  to  work  out  the 
utter  ruin  and  prostration  of  an  unholy  policy  by  ordinary 
means."  One  fact  must  be  mentioned  by  an  English  his- 
torian— one  which  an  English  historian  has  happily  not 
often  to  record.  It  is  certain  that  an  officer  in  our  service 
entered  into  negotiations  for  the  murder  of  the  insurgent 
chiefs,  who  were  our  worst  enemies.  It  is  more  than 
probable  that  he  believed  in  doing  so  he  was  acting  as  Sir 
W.  Macnaghten  would  have  had  him  do.  Sir  W.  Macnagh- 
ten  was  innocent  of  any  complicity  in  such  a  plot,  and 
was  incapable  of  it.  But  the  negotiations  were  opened  and 
carried  on  in  his  name. 

A  new  figure  appeared  on  the  scene,  a  dark  and  a  fierce 
apparition.  This  was  Akbar  Khan,  the  favorite  son  of 
Dost  Mahomed.  He  was  a  daring,  a  clever,  an  unscrupu- 
lous young  man.  From  the  moment  when  he  entered  Ca- 
bul he  became  the  real  leader  of  the  insurrection  against 
Shah  Soojah  and  us.  Macnaghten,  persuaded  by  the  mili- 
tary commander  that  the  i)osition  of  things  was  hopeless, 
consented  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  Akbar  Khan. 
Before  the  arrival  of  the  latter  the  chiefs  of  the  insurrec- 
tion had  offered  us  terms  which  made  the  ears  of  our  en- 
voy tingle.  Such  terms  had  not  often  been  even  sug- 
gested to  British  soldiers  before.  They  were  simply  un- 
conditional surrender.  Macnaghten  indignantly  rejected 
them.     Everything  went  wrong  with  him,  however.    We 


i88 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


I: 


\ 


'M 


f. 


!  ; 


were  beaten  again  and  again  by  the  Afghans.  Our  offi- 
cers never  faltered  in  their  duty ;  but  the  melancholy  truth 
has  to  be  told  that  the  men,  most  of  whom  were  Asiatics, 
at  last  began  to  lose  heart  and  would  not  fight  the  enemy. 
So  the  envoy  was  compelled  to  enter  into  terms  with  Ak- 
bar  Khan  and  the  other  chiefs.  Akbar  Khan  received  him 
at  first  with  contemptuous  insolence — as  a  haughty  con- 
queror receives  some  ignoble  and  humiliated  adversary. 
It  was  agreed  that  the  British  troops  should  quit  Afghan- 
istan at  once ;  that  Dost  Mahomed  and  his  family  should  be 
sent  back  to  Afghanistan ;  that  on  his  return  the  unfortu- 
nate Shah  Soojah  should  be  allowed  to  take  himself  off  to 
India  or  where  he  would ;  and  that  some  British  officers 
should  be  left  at  Cabul  as  hostages  for  the  fulfilment  of 
the  conditions. 

The  evacuation  did  not  take  place  at  once,  although  the 
fierce  winter  was  setting  in,  and  the  snow  was  falling 
heavily,  ominously.  Macnaghten  seems  to  have  had  still 
some  lingering  hopes  that  something  would  turn  up  to  re- 
lieve him  from  the  shame  of  quitting  the  country ;  and  it 
must  be  owned  that  he  does  not  seem  to  have  had  any  in- 
tention of  carrying  out  the  terms  of  the  agreement  if  by 
any  chance  he  could  escape  from  them.  On  both  sides 
there  were  dallyin2fs  and  delays.  At  last  Akbar  Khan 
made  a  new  and  startling  proposition  to  our  envoy.  It 
was  that  they  two  should  enter  into  a  secret  treaty,  should 
unite  their  arms  against  the  other  chiefs,  and  should  keep 
Shah  Soojah  on  the  throne  as  nominal  king,  with  Akbar 
Khan  as  his  vizier.  Macnaghten  caught  at  the  proposals. 
He  had  entered  into  terms  of  negotiation  with  the  Afghan 
chiefs  together;  he  now  consented  to  enter  into  a  secret 
treaty  with  one  of  the  chiefs  to  turn  their  joint  arms 
against  the  others.  It  would  be  idle  and  shameful  to  at- 
tempt to  defend  such  a  policy.  We  can  only  excuse  it  by 
considering  the  terrible  circumstances  of  Macnaghten's 
position,  the  manner  in  which  his  nerves  and  moral  fibre 
had  been  shaken  and  shattered  by  calamities,  and  his 


W' 


Tie  Disasters  of  Cabul. 


189 


doubts  whether  he  could  place  any  reliance  on  the  promises 
of  the  chiefs.  He  had  apparently  sunk  into  that  condition 
of  mind  which  Macaulay  tells  us  that  Clive  adopted  so 
readily  in  his  dealings  with  Asiatics,  and  under  the  influ- 
ence of  which  men  naturally  honorable  and  high-L  inded 
come  to  believe  that  it  is  right  to  act  treacherously  with 
those  whom  vv'e  believe  to  be  treacherous.  All  this  is  but 
excuse,  and  rather  poOr  excuse.  When  it  has  all  been 
said  and  thought  of,  we  must  stHl  be  glad  to  believe  that 
there  are  not  many  Englishmen  who  would,  under  any 
circumstances,  have  consented  even  to  give  a  hearing  to 
the  proposals  of  Akbar  Khan. 

Whatever  Macnaghten's  error,  it  was  dearly  expiated. 
He  went  out  at  noon  next  day  to  confer  with  Akbar  Khan 
on  the  banks  of  the  neighboring  river.     Three  of  his  offi- 
cers were  with  him.     Akbar  Khan  was  ominously  sur- 
rounded by  friends  and  retainers.     These  kept  pressing 
round  the  unfortunate  envoy.     Some  remonstrance  was 
made  by  one  of  the  English  officers,  but  Akbar  Khan  said  it 
was  of  no  consequence,  as  they  were  all  in  the  secret. 
Not  many  words  were  spoken;  the  expected  conference 
had  hardly  begun  when  a  signal  was  given  or  an  order  issued 
by  Akbar  Khan,  and  the  envoy  and  the  officers  were  sud- 
denly seized    from  behind.     A  scene  of  wild  confusion 
followed,  in  which  hardly  anything  is  clear  and  certain  but 
the  one  most  horrible  incident.     The  envoy  struggled  with 
Akbar  Khan,  who  had  himself  seized  Macnaghten ;  Akbar 
Khan  drew  from  his  belt  one  of  a  pair  of  pistols  which 
Macnaghten  had  presented  to  him  a  short  time  before, 
and  shot  him  through  the  body.     The  fanatics  who  were 
crowding  round  hacked  the  body  to  pieces  with  their 
knives.     Of  the  three  officers  one  was  killed  on  the  spot ; 
the  other  two  were  forced  to  mount  Afghan  horses  and 
carried  away  as  prisoners. 

At  first  this  horrid  deed  of  treachery  and  blood  shows 
like  that  to  which  Clearchus  and  his  companions,  the 
chiefs  of  the  famous  ten  thousand  Greeks,  fell  victims  at 


190 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


m- 


i»M  '^' 


ij  I- 


('K      I 


1      '■ 


l«l., 


the  hands  of  Tissaphernes,  the  Persian  satrap.  But  it 
seems  certain  that  the  treachery  of  Akbar,  base  as  it  was, 
did  not  contemplate  more  than  the  seizure  of  the  envoy 
and  his  officers.  There  were  jealousies  and  disputes 
among  the  chiefs  of  the  insurrection.  One  of  them,  in 
especial,  had  got  his  mind  filled  with  the  conviction,  in- 
spired, no  doubt,  by  the  unfortunate  and  unparalleled  ne- 
gotiation already  mentioned,  that  the  envoy  had  offered  a 
price  for  his  head.  Akbar  Khan  was  accused  by  him  of 
being  a  secret  friend  of  the  envoy  and  the  English. 
Akbar  Khan's  father  was  a  captive  in  the  hands  of  the 
English,  and  it  may  have  been  thought  that  on  his  ac- 
count and  for  personal  purposes  Akbar  was  favoring  the 
envoy,  and  even  intriguing  with  him.  Akbar  offered  to 
prove  his  sincerity  by  making  the  envoy  a  captive  and 
handing  him  over  to  the  chiefs.  This  was  the  treacherous 
plot  which  he  strove  to  carry  out  by  entering  into  the  se- 
cret negotiations  with  the  easily-deluded  envoy.  On  the 
fatal  day  the  latter  resisted  and  struggled ;  Akbar  Khan 
heard  a  cry  of  alarm  that  the  English  soldiers  were  com- 
ing out  of  the  cantonments  to  rescue  the  envoy ;  and,  wild 
with  passion,  he  suddenly  drew  his  pistol  and  fired.  This 
was  the  statement  made  again  and  again  by  Akbar  Khan 
himself.  It  does  not  seem  an  improbable  explanation  for 
what  otherwise  looks  a  murder  as  stupid  and  purposeless 
as  it  was  brutal.  The  explanation  does  not  much  relieve 
the  darkness  of  Akbar  Khan's  character.  It  is  given  here 
as  history,  not  as  exculpation.  There  is  not  the  slightest 
reason  to  suppose  that  Akbar  Khan  would  have  shrunk 
from  any  treachery  or  any  cruelty  which  served  his  pur- 
pose.  His  own  explanation  of  his  purpose  in  this  instance 
shows  a  degree  of  treachery  which  could  hardly  be  sur- 
passed even  in  the  East.  But  it  is  well  to  bear  in  mind 
that  the  suspicion  of  perfidy  under  which  the  English  en- 
voy labored,  and  which  was  the  main  impulse  of  Akbar 
Khan's  movement,  had  evidence  enough  to  support  it  in 
the  eyes  of  suspicious  enemies ;  and  that  poor  Macnaghten 


i  ') 


m  . 


The  Disasters  of  Cabul. 


191 


.     But  it 

as  it  was, 

he  envoy 

disputes 

them,  in 

ction,  in- 

leled  ne- 

oflfered  a 

y  him  of 

English. 

ds  of  the 

n  his  ac- 

)ring  the 

Sfered  to 

tive  and 

icherous 

>  the  se- 

On  the 

ar  Khan 

5ie  com- 

nd,  wild 

.    This 

ir  Khan 

tion  for 

noseless 

relieve 

en  here 

ightest 

shrunk 

is  pur- 

istance 

be  sur- 

mind 

sh  en- 

Akbar 

t  it  in 

ighten 


would  not  have  been  murdered  had  he  not  consented  to 
meet  Akbar  Khan  and  treat  with  him  on  a  proposition  to 
which  an  English  official  should  never  have  listened. 

A  terrible  agony  of  suspense  followed  among  the  little 
English  force  in  the  cantonments.     The  military  chiefs 
afterward  stated  that  they  did  not  know  until  the  following 
day  that  any  calamity  had  befallen  the  envoy.     But  a 
keen  suspicion  ran  through  the  cantonments  that  some  fear- 
ful deed  had  been  done.     No  step  was  taken  to  avenge  the 
death  of  Macnaghten,  even  when  it  became  known  that 
his  hacked  and  mangled  body  had  been  exhibited  in  tri- 
umph all  through  the  streets  and  bazaars  of  Cabul.     A 
paralysis  seemed  to  have  fallen  over  the  councils  of  our 
military  chiefs.     On  December  24th,  1841,  came  a  letter 
from  one  of  the  officers  seized  by  Akbar  Khan,  accompany- 
ing proposals  for  a  treaty  from  the  Afghan  chiefs.     It  is 
hard  now  to  understand  how  any  English  officers  could 
have  consented  to  enter  into  terms  with  the  murderers  of 
Macnaghten  before  his  mangled  body  could  well  have 
ceased  to  bleed.     It  is  strange  that  it  did  not  occur  to  most 
of  them  that  there  was  an  alternative ;  that  they  were  not 
ordered  by  fate  to  accept  whatever  the  conquerors  chose  to 
offer.     We  can  all  see  the  difficulty  of  their  position. 
General  Elphinstone  and  his  second  in  command,  Brigadier 
Shelton,  were  convinced  that  it  would  be  equally  impossi- 
ble to  stay  where  they  were  or  to  cut  their  way  through 
the  Afghans.     But  it  might  have  occurred  to  many  that 
they  were  nevertheless  not  bound  to  treat  with  the  Af- 
ghans.    They  might  have  remembered  the  famous  answer 
of  the  father  in  Corneille's  immortal  drama,  who  is  asked 
what  his  son  could  have  done  but  yield  in  the  face  of 
such  odds,  and  exclaims  in  generous  passion  that  he  could 
have  died.     One  English  officer  of  mark  did  counsel  his 
superiors  in  this  spirit.     This  was  Major  Eldred  Pottinger, 
whose  skill  and  courage  in  the  defence  of  Herat  we  have 
already  mentioned.     Pottinger  was  for  cutting  their  way 
through  all  enemies  and  difficulties  as  far  as  they  could, 


192 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


U     |,t 


■1 1 


.  r'' 


and  then  occupying  the  ground  with  their  dead  bodies. 
But  his  advice  was  hardly  taken  into  consideration.  It 
was  determined  to  treat  with  the  Afghans ;  and  treating 
with  the  Afghans  now  meant  accepting  any  terms  the 
Afghans  chose  to  impose  on  their  fallen  enemies.  In  the 
negotiations  that  went  on  some  written  documents  were 
exchanged.  One  of  these,  drawn  up  by  the  English  nego- 
tiators, contains  a  short  sentence  which  we  believe  to  be  ab- 
solutely unique  in  the  history  of  British  dealings  with  armed 
enemies.  It  is  an  appeal  to  the  Afghan  conquerors  not  to 
be  too  hard  upon  the  vanquished ;  not  to  break  the  bruised 
reed.  "  In  friendship,  kindness  and  consideration  are  nec- 
essary, not  overpowering  the  weak  with  sufferings!"  In 
friendship ! — we  appealed  to  the  friendship  of  Macnaghten's 
murderers:  to  the  friendship,  in  any  case,  of  the  man 
whose  father  we  had  dethroned  and  driven  into  exile. 
Not  overpowering  the  weak  with  sufferings!  The  weak 
were  the  English !  One  might  fancy  he  was  reading  the 
plaintive  and  piteous  appeal  of  some  forlorn  and  feeble 
tribe  of  helpless  half-breeds  for  the  mercy  of  arrogant  and 
mastering  rulers.  "  Suffolk's  imperious  tongue  is  stern 
and  rough,"  says  one  in  Shakspeare's  pages,  when  he  is 
bidden  to  ask  for  consideration  at  the  hands  of  captors 
whom  he  is  no  longer  able  to  resict.  The  tongue  with 
which  the  English  force  at  Cabul  addressee  the  Afghans 
was  not  imperious  or  stern  or  rough.  It  was  bated,  mild, 
and  plaintive.  Only  the  other  day,  it  would  seem,  these 
men  had  blown  up  the  gates  of  Ghuznee,  and  rushed 
through  the  dense  smoke  and  the  falling  ruins  to  attack 
the  enemy  hand  to  hand.  Only  the  other  d?y  our  envoy 
had  received  in  surrender  the  bright  sword  of  Dost  Ma- 
homed. 'Now  the  same  men  who  had  seen  these  things 
could  only  plead  for  a  little  gentleness  of  consideration, 
and  had  no  thought  of  resistance,  and  did  not  any  longer 
seem  to  know  how  to  die. 

We  accepted  the  teirms  of  treaty  offered  to  us.     Nothing 
else  could  be  done  by  men  who  were  not  prepared  to  adopt 


The  Disasters  of  Cabul. 


»93 


bodies, 
tion.     It 
treating 
rms  the 
In  the 
its  were 
sh  nego- 
to  be  ab- 
th  armed 
rs  not  to 
!  bruised 
are  nec- 
isr    In 
aghten's 
he  man 
o  exile, 
he  weak 
ling  the 
d  feeble 
^ant  and 
is  stern 
m  he  is 
captors 
ue  with 
Afghans 
i,  mild, 
1,  these 
rushed 
>  attack 
T  envoy 
Dst  Ma- 
things 
sration, 
longer 

othing 
adopt 


the  advice  of  the  heroic  father  in  Comeille.  The  English 
were  at  once  to  take  themselves  off  out  of  Afghanistan, 
giving  up  all  their  guns  except  six,  which  they  were  al- 
lowed to  retain  for  their  necessary  defence  in  their  mourn- 
ful journey  home ;  they  were  to  leave  behind  all  the  treas- 
ure, and  to  guarantee  the  payment  of  something  additional 
for  the  safe-conduct  of  the  poor  little  army  to  Peshawur 
or  to  Jellalabad;  and  they  were  to  hand  over  six  officers 
as  hostages  for  the  due  fulfilment  of  the  conditions.  It  is 
of  course  understood  that  the  conditions  included  the  im- 
mediate release  of  Dost  Mahomed  and  his  family  and  their 
return  to  Afghanistan.  When  these  should  return,  Jhe  six 
hostages  were  to  be  released.  Only  one  concession  had 
been  obtained  from  the  conquerors.  It  was  at  first  de- 
manded that  some  of  the  married  ladies  should  be  left  as 
hostages;  but  on  the  urgent  representations  of  the  English 
officers  this  condition  was  waived — at  least  for  the  moment. 
When  the  treaty  was  signed,  the  officers  who  had  been 
seized  when  Macnaghten  was  murdered  were  released. 

It  is  worth  mentioning  that  these  officers  were  not  badly 
treated  by  Akbar  Khan  while  they  were  in  his  power. 
On  the  contrary,  he  had  to  make  strenuous  efforts,  and 
did  make  them  in  good  faith,  to  save  them  from  being 
murdered  by  bands  of  his  fanatical  followers.  One  of  the 
officers  has  himself  described  the  almost  desperate  efforts 
which  Akbar  Khan  had  to  make  to  save  him  from  the  fury 
of  the  mob,  who  thronged  thirsting  for  the  blood  of  the 
Englishman  up  to  the  very  stirrup  of  their  young  chief. 
"  Akbar  Khan,"  says  this  officer,  "  at  length  drew  his  sword 
and  laid  about  him  right  manfully"  in  defence  of  his  pris- 
oner. When,  however,  he  had  got  the  latter  into  a  place 
of  safety,  the  impetuous  young  Afghan  chief  could  not  re- 
strain a  sneer  at  his  captive  and  the  cause  his  captive  rep- 
resented. Turning  to  the  English  officer,  he  said  more 
than  once,  *'  in  a  tone  of  triumphant  derision,"  some  words 
such  as  these :  "  So  you  are  the  man  who  came  here  to  seize 
my  country?"  It  must  be  owned  that  the  condition  of 
Vol.  I.— 13 


m\ 


1l^  ^' 

-  y'.       '    '  ' 

Til  1    1  ^ 

194 


A  History  of  Ovr  Own  Times. 


«-'3 


1^\      !  il 


things  gave  bitter  meaning  to  the  taunt,  if  they  did  not 
actually  excuse  it.  At  a  later  period  of  this  melancholy 
story  it  is  told  by  Lady  Sale  that  crowds  of  the  fanatical 
Ghilzyes  were  endeavoring  to  persuade  Akbar  Khan  to 
slaughter  all  the  English,  and  that  when  he  tried  to  pacify 
them  they  said  that  when  Bumes  came  into  the  country 
they  entreated  Akbar  Khan's  father  to  have  Bumes  killed, 
or  he  would  go  back  to  Hindostan  and  on  some  future  day 
return  and  bring  an  army  with  him,  "  to  take  our  country 
from  us;"  and  all  the  calamities  had  come  upon  them  be- 
cause Dost  Mahomed  would  not  take  their  advice.  Akbar 
Khan  either  was  or  pretended  to  be  moderate.  He  might, 
indeed,  safely  put  on  an  air  of  magnanimity.  His  enemies 
were  doomed.  It  needed  no  command  from  him  to  decree 
their  destruction. 

The  withdrawal  from  Cabul  began.  It  was  the  heart 
of  a  cruel  winter.  The  English  had  to  make  their  way 
through  the  awful  pass  of  Koord  Cabul.  This  stupendous 
gorge  runs  for  some  five  miles  between  mountain  ranges 
so  narrow,  lofty,  and  grim  that  in  the  winter  season  the 
rays  of  the  sun  can  hardly  pierce  its  darkness  even  at  the 
noontide.  Down  the  centre  dashed  a  precipitous  moun- 
tain torrent  so  fiercely  that  the  stern  frost  of  that  terrible 
time  could  not  stay  its  course.  The  snow  lay  in  masses 
on  the  ground ;  the  rocks  and  stones  that  raised  their  heads 
above  the  snow  in  the  way  of  the  unfortunate  travellers 
were  slippery  with  frost.  Soon  the  white  snow  began  to 
be  stained  and  splashed  with  blood.  Fearful  as  this  Koord 
Cabul  Pass  was,  it  was  only  a  degree  worse  than  the  road 
which  for  two  whole  days  the  English  had  to  traverse  to 
reach  it.  The  army  which  set  out  from  Cabul  numbered 
more  than  four  thousand  fighting  men — of  whom  Euro- 
peans, it  should  be  said,  formed  but  a  small  proportion — 
and  some  twelve  thousand  camp  followers  of  all  kinds. 
There  were  also  many  women  and  children :  Lady  Mac- 
naghten,  widow  of  the  murdered  envoy ;  Lady  Sale,  whose 
gallant  husband  was  holding  Jellalabad,  at  the  near  end 


'/ 1 


Tbe  Disasters  of  Cabul. 


>95 


y  did  not 
slancholy 
fanatical 
Khan  to 
to  pacify 
e  country 
,es  killed, 
uture  day 
r  country 
them  be- 
I.  Akbar 
3e  might, 
s  enemies 
to  decree 

the  heart 

their  way 

:upendous 

in  ranges 

Rason  the 

en  at  the 

us  moun- 

it  terrible 

n  masses 

leir  heads 

xavellers 

began  to 

lis  Koord 

the  road 

averse  to 

lumbered 

im  Euro- 

jortion — 

ill  kinds. 

ady  Mac- 

e,  whose 

near  end 


of  the  Khyber  Pass,  toward  the  Indian  frontier;  Mrs. 
Sturt,  her  daughter,  soon  to  be  widowed  by  the  death  of 
her  young  husband ;  Mrs.  Trevor  and  her  seven  children, 
and  many  other  pitiable  fugitives.  The  winter  journey 
would  have  been  cruel  and  dangerous  enough  in  time  of 
peace ;  but  this  journey  had  to  be  accomplished  in  the  midst 
of  something  far  worse  than  common  war.  At  evfisry  step 
of  the  road,  every  opening  of  the  rocks,  the  unhappy 
crowd  of  confused  and  heterogeneous  fugitives  were  beset 
by  bands  of  savage  fanatics,  who  with  their  long  guns 
and  long  knives  were  murdering  all  they  could  reach.  It 
was  all  the  way  a  confused  constant  battle  against  a  guer- 
illa enemy  of  the  most  furious  and  merciless  temper,  who 
were  perfectly  familiar  with  the  ground,  and  could  rush 
forward  and  retire  exactly  as  suited  their  tactics.  The  Eng- 
lish soldiers,  weary,  weak,  and  crippled  by  frost,  could 
make  but  a  poor  fight  against  the  savage  Afghans.  "  It 
was  no  longer,"  says  Sir  J.  W.  Kaye,  "a  retreating  army; 
it  was  a  rabble  in  chaotic  flight."  Men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, horses,  ponies,  camels,  the  wounded,  the  dying,  the 
dead,  all  crowded  together  in  almost  inextricable  confusion 
among  the  snow  and  amidst  the  relentless  enemies.  "  The 
massacre" — to  quote  again  from  Sir  J.  W.  Kaye — "was 
fearful  in  this  Koord  Cabul  Pass.  Three  thousand  men 
are  said  to  have  fallen  under  the  fire  of  the  enemy,  or  to 
have  dropped  down  paralyzed  and  exhausted  to  be  slaugh- 
tered by  the  Afghan  knives.  And  amidst  these  fearful 
scenes  of  carnage,  through  a  shower  of  matchlock  balls, 
rode  English  ladies  on  horseback  or  in  camel -panniers, 
sometimts  vainly  endeavoring  to  keep  their  children  be- 
neath their  eyes,  and  losing  them  in  the  confusion  and  be- 
wilderment of  the  desolating  march." 

Was  it  for  this,  then,  that  our  troops  had  been  induced 
to  capitulate?  Was  this  the  safe-conduct  which  the  Afghan 
chiefs  had  promised  in  return  for  their  accepting  the  igno- 
minious conditions  imposed  on  them?  Some  of  the  chiefs 
did  exert  themselves  to  their  utmost  to  protect  the  unfor- 


m 


I'.*] 


196 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


tunate  English.  It  is  not  certain  what  the  real  wish  of 
Akbar  Khan  may  have  been.  He  protested  that  he  had 
no  power  to  restrain  the  hordes  of  fanatical  Ghilzyes 
whose  own  immediate  chiefs  had  not  authority  enough  to 
keep  them  from  murdering  the  English  whenever  they 
got  a  chance.  The  force  of  some  few  hundred  horsemen 
whom  Akbar  Khan  had  with  him  were  utterly  incapable, 
he  declared,  of  maintaining  order  among  such  a  mass  of 
infuriated  and  lawless  savages.  Akbar  Khan  constantly 
appeared  on  the  scene  during  this  journey  of  terror.  At 
every  opening  or  break  of  the  long  straggling  flight  he 
and  his  little  band  of  followers  showed  themselves  on  the 
horizon :  trying  still  to  protect  the  English  from  utter  ruin, 
as  he  declared ;  come  to  gloat  over  their  misery,  and  to 
see  that  it  was  surely  accomplished,  some  of  the  unhappy 
English  were  ready  to  believe.  Yet  his  presence  was 
something  that  seemed  to  give  a  hope  of  protection. 
Akbar  Khan  at  length  startled  the  English  by  a  proposal 
that  the  women  and  children  who  were  with  the  army 
should  be  handed  over  to  his  custody,  to  be  conveyed  by 
him  in  safety  to  Peshawur.  There  was  nothing  better  to 
be  done.  The  only  modification  of  his  request,  or  com- 
mand, that  could  be  obtained  was  that  the  husbands  of  the 
married  ladies  should  accompany  their  wives.  With  this 
agreemert  the  women  and  children  were  handed  over  to 
the  care  of  this  dreaded  enemy,  and  Lady  Macnaghten  had 
to  undergo  the  agony  of  a  personal  interview  with  the 
man  whose  own  hand  had  killed  her  husband.  Few  scenes 
in  poetry  or  romance  can  surely  be  more  thrilling  with 
emotion  than  such  a  meeting  as  this  must  have  been. 
Akbar  Khan  was  kindly  in  his  langfuage,  and  declared  to 
the  unhappy  widow  that  he  would  give  his  right  arm  to 
undo,  if  it  were  possible,  the  deed  that  he  had  done. 

The  women  and  children  and  the  married  men  whose 
wives  were  among  this  party  were  taken  from  the  unfor- 
tunate army  and  placed  under  the  care  of  Akbar  Khan. 
As  events  turned  out,  this  proved  a  fortunate  thing  for 


m^i 


The  Disasters  of  CabuL 


«97 


il  wish  of 
at  he  had 
Ghilzyes 
jnough  to 
jver  they 
horsemen 
ncapable, 
L  mass  of 
onstantly 
rror.  At 
flight  he 
es  on  the 
ittermin, 
y,  and  to 
unhappy 
ence  was 
rotection. 
proposal 
the  army 
ireyed  by 
better  to 
or  com- 
ids  of  the 
^ith  this 
over  to 
hten  had 
with  the 
!W  scenes 
ing  with 
ve  been, 
blared  to 
it  arm  to 
ne. 

n  whose 
e  unfor- 
ir  Khan, 
hing  for 


them.  But  in  any  case  it  was  the  best  thing  that  could 
be  done.  Not  one  of  these  women  and  children  could 
have  lived  through  the  horrors  of  the  journey  which  lay 
before  the  remnant  of  what  had  once  been  a  British  force. 
The  march  was  resumed ;  new  horrors  set  in ;  new  heaps 
of  corpses  stained  the  snow ;  and  then  Akbar  Khan  pre- 
sented  himself  with  a  fresh  proposition.  In  the  treaty 
made  at  Cabul  between  the  English  authorities  and  the 
Afghan  chiefs  there  was  an  article  which  stipulated  that 
"  the  English  force  at  Jellalabad  shall  march  for  Peshawur 
before  the  Cabul  army  arrives,  and  shall  not  delay  on  the 
road."  Akbar  Khan  was  especially  anxious  to  get  rid  of 
the  little  army  at  Jellalabad,  at  the  near  end  of  the  Khyber 
Pass.  He  desired  above  all  things  that  it  should  be  on 
the  march  home  to  India ;  either  that  it  might  be  out  of 
his  way,  or  that  he  might  have  a  chance  of  destroying  it 
on  its  way.  It  was  in  great  measure  as  a  security  for  its 
moving  that  he  desired  to  have  the  women  and  children 
under  his  care.  It  is  not  likely  that  he  meant  any  harm 
to  the  women  and  children ;  it  must  be  remembered  that 
his  father  and  many  of  the  women  of  his  family  were  un- 
der the  control  of  the  British  Government  as  prisoners  in 
Hindostan.  But  he  fancied  that  if  he  had  the  English 
women  in  his  hands,  the  army  at  Jellalabad  could  not  re- 
fuse to  obey  the  condition  set  down  in  the  article  of  the 
treaty.  Now  that  he  had  the  women  in  his  power,  how- 
ever, he  demanded  other  guarantees,  with  openly  acknowl- 
edged purpose  of  keeping  these  latter  until  Jellalabad 
should  have  been  evacuated.  He  demanded  that  General 
Elphinstone,  the  commander,  with  his  second  in  command, 
and  also  one  other  officer,  should  hand  themselves  over  to 
him  as  hostages.  He  promised,  if  this  were  done,  to  exert 
himself  more  than  before  to  restrain  the  fanatical  tribes, 
and  also  to  provide  the  army  in  the  Koord  Cabul  Pass  with 
provisions.  There  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  submit ;  and 
the  English  general  himself  became,  with  the  women  and 
children,  a  captive  in  the  hands  of  the  inexorable  enemy. 


IW 


I 


j4  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


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I'l  ■}  <  ■  I, 


t 


,i\^. 


1-1 


Then  the  march  of  the  army,  without  a  general,  went 
on  again.  Soon  it  became  the  story  of  a  general  without 
an  army ;  before  very  long  there  was  neither  general  nor 
army.  It  is  idle  to  lengthen  a  tale  of  mere  horrors.  The 
straggling  remnant  of  an  army  entered  the  Jugdulluk  Pass 
— a  dark,  steep,  narrow,  ascending  path  between  crags. 
The  miserable  toilers  found  that  the  fanatical,  implacable 
tribes  had  barricaded  the  pass.  All  was  over.  The  army 
of  Cabul  was  finally  extinguishea  in  that  bart^caded  pass. 
It  was  a  trap ;  the  British  were  taken  in  it.  A  few  mere 
fugitives  escaped  from  the  scene  of  actual  slaughter,  and 
were  on  the  road  to  Jellalabad,  where  Sale  and  his  little 
army  were  holding  their  own.  When  they  were  within 
sixteen  miles  of  Jellalabad  the  number  was  reduced  to  six. 
Of  these  six,  five  were  killed  by  straggling  marauders  on 
the  way.  One  man  alone  reached  Jellalabad  to  tell  the 
tale.  Literally  one  man,  Dr.  Brydon,  came  to  Jellalabad 
out  of  a  moving  host  which  had  numbered  in  all  some  six- 
teen thousand  when  it  set  out  on  its  march.  The  curious 
eye  will  search  through  history  or  fiction  in  vain  for  any 
picture  more  thrilling  with  the  suggestions  of  an  awful 
catastrophe  than  that  of  this  solitary  survivor,  faint  and 
reeling  on  his  jaded  horse,  as  he  appeared  under  the  walls 
of  Jellalabad,  to  bear  the  tidings  of  our  Thermopylae  of 
pain  and  shame. 

This  is  the  crisis  of  the  story.  With  this,  at  least,  the 
worst  of  the  pain  and  shame  were  destined  to  end.  The 
rest  is  all,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  reaction  and  re- 
covery. Our  successes  are  common  enough ;  we  may  tell 
their  tale  briefly  in  this  instance.  The  garrison  at  Jella- 
labad had  received,  before  Dr.  Brydon 's  arrival,  an  in- 
timation that  they  were  to  go  out  and  march  toward  India 
in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  treaty  extorted  from 
Elphinstone  at  Cabul.  They  very  properly  declined  to  be 
bound  by  a  treaty  which,  as  General  Sale  rightly  conjec- 
tured, had  been  "  forced  from  our  envoy  and  military  com- 
mander with  the  knives  at  their  throats. "    General  Sale's 


Tbe  Disasters  of  Cabvl. 


«99 


determination  was  clear  and  simple.  "  I  propose  to  hold 
this  place  on  the  part  of  Government  until  I  receive  its 
order  to  the  contrary. "  This  resolve  of  Sale's  was  really 
the  turning-point  of  the  history.  Sale  held  Jellalabad; 
Nott  was  at  Candahar.  Akbar  Khan  besieged  Jellalabad. 
Nature  seemed  to  have  declared  herself  emphatically  on 
his  side,  for  a  succession  of  earthquake  shocks  shattered 
the  walls  of  the  place,  and  produced  more  terrible  destruc- 
tion than  the  most  formidable  guns  of  modem  warfare 
could  have  done.  But  the  garrison  held  out  fearlessly; 
they  restored  the  parapets,  re-established  every  battery, 
re-trenched  the  whole  of  the  gates,  and  built  up  all  the 
breaches.  They  resisted  every  attempt  of  Akbar  Khan 
to  advance  upon  their  works,  and  at  length,  when  it  be- 
came certain  that  General  Pollock  was  forcing  the  Khyber 
Pass  to  come  to  their  relief,  they  determined  to  attack 
Akbar  Khan's  army;  they  issued  boldly  out  of  their  forts, 
forced  a  battle  on  the  Afghan  chief,  and  completely  de- 
feated him.  Before  Pollock,  having  gallantly  fought  his 
way  through  the  Khyber  Pass,  had  reached  Jellalabad, 
the  beleaguering  army  had  been  entirely  df  *eated  and  dis- 
persed. General  Nott  at  Candahar  was  ready  now  to  co- 
operate with  General  Sale  and  General  Pollock  for  any 
movement  on  Cabul  which  the  authorities  might  advise  or 
sanction.  Meanwhile  the  unfortunate  Shah  Soojah,  whom 
we  had  restored  with  so  much  pomp  of  announcement  to 
the  throne  of  his  ancestors,  was  dead.  He  was  assassinated 
in  Cabul,  soon  after  the  departure  of  the  British,  by  the 
orders  of  some  of  the  chiefs  who  detested  him ;  and  his 
body,  stripped  of  its  royal  robes  and  its  many  jewels,  was 
flung  into  a  ditch.  Historians  quarrel  a  good  deal  over 
the  question  of  his  sincerity  and  fidelity  in  his  dealings 
with  us.  It  is  not  likely  that  an  Oriental  of  his  tempera- 
ment and  his  weakness  could  have  been  capable  of  any 
genuine  and  unmixed  loyalty  to  the  English  strangers. 
It  seems  to  us  probable  enough  that  he  may  at  important 
moments  have  wavered  and  even  faltered,  glad  to  take 


M6 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


» 


t 


<) 


f;''rl' 


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advantage  of  any  movement  that  might  safely  rid  him  of 
us,  and  yet,  on  the  whole,  preferring  our  friendship  and 
our  protection  to  the  tender  mercies  which  he  was  doomed 
to  experience  when  our  troops  had  left  him.  But  if  we 
ask  concerning  his  gratitude  to  us,  it  may  be  well  also  to 
ask  what  there  was  in  our  conduct  toward  him  which 
called  for  any  enthusiastic  display  of  gratitude.  We  did 
not  help  him  out  of  any  love  for  him,  or  any  concern  for 
the  justice  of  his  cause.  It  served  us  to  have  a  puppet, 
and  we  took  him  when  it  suited  us.  We  also  abandoned 
him  when  it  suited  us.  As  Lady  Teazle  proposes  to  do 
with  honor  in  her  conference  with  Joseph  Surface,  so  we 
ought  to  do  with  gratitude  in  discussing  the  merits  of  Shah 
Soojah — leave  it  out  of  the  question.  What  Shah  Soojah 
owed  to  us  were  a  few  weeks  of  idle  pomp  and  absurd 
dreams,  a  bitter  awakening,  and  a  shameful  death. 

During  this  time  a  new  Governor-General  had  arrived 
in  India.  Lord  Auckland's  time  had  run  out,  and  during 
its  latter  months  he  had  become  nerveless  and  despondent 
because  of  the  utter  failure  of  the  policy  which,  in  an  evil 
hour  for  himself  and  his  country,  he  had  been  induced  to 
undertake.  It  does  not  seem  that  it  ever  was  at  heart  a 
policy  of  his  own,  and  he  knew  that  the  East  India  Com- 
pany were  altogether  opposed  to  it.  The  Company  were 
well  aware  of  the  vast  expense  ■' ich  our  enterprises  in 
Afghanistan  must  impose  on  the  revenues  of  India,  and 
they  looked  forward  eagerly  to  the  earliest  opportunity  of 
bringing  it  to  a  close.  Lord  Auckland  had  been  per- 
suaded into  adopting  it  against  his  better  judgment,  and 
against  even  the  whisperings  of  his  conscience ;  and  now 
he  too  longed  to  be  done  with  it ;  but  he  wished  to  leave 
Afghanistan  as  a  magnanimous  conqueror.  He  had  in 
his  own  person  discounted  the  honors  of  victory.  He  had 
received  an  earldom  for  the  services  he  was  presumed  to 
have  rendered  to  his  sovereign  and  his  country.  He  had, 
therefore,  in  full  sight  that  mournful  juxtaposition  of  in- 
congruous objects  which  a  great  English  writer  has  de- 


The  Disasters  of  Cabui. 


201 


scribed  so  touchingly  and  tersely — the  trophies  of  victory 
and  the  battle  lost.  He  was  an  honorable,  kindly  gentle- 
man, and  the  news  of  all  the  successive  calamities  fell 
upon  him  with  a  crushing,  an  overwhelming  weight.  In 
plain  language,  the  Governor-General  lost  his  head.  He 
seemed  to  have  no  other  idea  than  that  of  getting  all  our 
troops  as  quickly  as  might  be  out  of  Afghanistan,  and 
shaking  the  dust  of  the  place  off  our  feet  forever.  It  may 
be  doubted  whether,  if  we  had  pursued  such  a  policy  as 
this,  we  might  not  as  well  have  left  India  itself  once  for 
all.  If  we  had  allowed  it  to  seem  clear  to  the  Indian 
populations  and  princes  that  we  could  be  driven  out  of 
Afghanistan  with  humiliation  and  disaster,  and  that  we 
were  unable  or  afraid  to  strike  one  blow  to  redeem  our 
military  credit,  we  should  before  long  have  seen  in  Hin- 
dostan  many  an  attempt  to  enact  there  the  scenes  of  Cabul 
and  Candahar.  Unless  a  moralist  is  prepared  to  say  that 
a  nation  which  has  committed  one  error  of  policy  is  bound 
in  conscience  to  take  all  the  worst  and  most  protracted 
consequences  of  that  error,  and  never  make  any  attempt 
to  protect  itself  against  them,  even  a  moralist  of  the  most 
scrupulous  character  can  hardly  deny  that  we  were  bound, 
for  the  sake  of  our  interests  in  Europe  r.s  well  as  in  India, 
to  prove  that  our  strength  had  not  been  broken  nor  our 
counsels  paralyzed  by  the  disasters  in  Afghanistan.  Yet 
Lord  Auckland  does  not  appear  to  have  thought  anything 
of  the  kind  either  needful  or  within  the  compass  of  our 
national  strength.     He  was,  in  fact,  a  broken  man. 

His  successor  came  out  with  the  brightest  hopes  of  In- 
dia and  the  world,  founded  on  his  energy  and  strength  of 
mind.  The  successor  was  Lord  Ellenborough,  the  son 
of  that  Edward  Law,  afterward  Lord  Ellenl  orough,  Chief- 
justice  of  the  King's  Bench,  who  had  been  leading  counsel 
for  Warren  Hastings  when  the  lattei'  was  impeached  be- 
fore the  House  of  Lords.  The  second  Ellenborough  was 
at  the  time  of  his  appointment  filling  the  office  of  President 
of  the  Board  of  Control,  an  office  he  had  held  before.     He 


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A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


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was  therefore  well  acquainted  with  the  affairs  of  India. 
He  had  come  into  office  under  Sir  Robert  Peel  on  the 
resignation  of  the  Melbourne  Ministry.  He  was  looked 
upon  as  a  man  of  great  ability  and  energy.  It  was  known 
that  his  personal  predilections  were  for  the  career  of  a 
soldier.  He  was  fond  of  telling  his  hearers  then  and  since 
that  the  life  of  a  camp  was  that  which  he  should  have 
loved  to  lead.  He  was  a  man  of  great  and,  in  certain 
lights,  apparently  splendid  abilities.  There  was  a  certain 
Orientalism  about  his  language,  his  aspirations,  and  his 
policy.  He  loved  gorgeousness  and  dramatic — ill-natured 
persons  said  theatric — effects.  Life  arranged  itself  in  his 
eyes  as  a  superb  and  showy  pageant,  of  which  it  would 
have  been  his  ambition  to  form  the  central  figure.  His 
eloquence  was  often  of  a  lofty  and  noble  order.  Men  who 
are  still  hardly  of  middle  age  can  remember  Lord  Ellen- 
borough  on  great  occasions  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  can 
recollect  their  having  been  deeply  impressed  by  him,  even 
though  they  had  but  lately  heard  such  speakers  as  Glad- 
stone or  Bright  in  the  other  House.  It  was  not  easy,  in- 
deed, sometimes  to  avoid  the  conviction  that  in  listening 
to  Lord  EUenborough  one  was  listening  to  a  really  great 
orator  of  a  somewhat  antique  and  stately  type,  who  attuned 
his  speech  to  the  pitch  of  an  age  of  loftier  and  less  prosaic 
aims  than  ours.  When  he  had  a  great  question  to  deal 
with,  and  when  his  instincts,  if  not  his  reasoning  power, 
had  put  him  on  the  right  or  at  least  the  effective  side  of 
it,  he  could  speak  in  a  tone  of  poetic  and  elevated  elo- 
quence to  which  it  was  impossible  to  listen  without  emotion. 
But  if  Lord  EUenborough  was  in  some  respects  a  man  of 
genius,  he  wac  also  a  man  whose  love  of  mere  effects  often 
made  him  seem  like  a  quack.  There  are  certain  characters 
in  which  a  little  of  unconscious  quackery  is  associated 
with  some  of  the  elements  of  true  genius.  Lord  Ellen- 
borough  was  one  of  these.  Far  greater  men  than  he  must 
be  associated  in  the  same  category.  The  elder  Pitt,  the 
first  Napoleon,  Mirabeau,  Bolingbroke,  and  many  others, 


I  f,        i 


"Xi 


The  Disasters  of  Cabul. 


203 


were  men  in  whom  undoubtedly  some  of  the  charlatan  was 
mixed  up  with  some  of  the  very  highest  qualities  of  genius. 
In  Lord  Ellenborough  this  blending  was  strongly  and 
sometimes  even  startlingly  apparent.  To  this  hour  there 
are  men  who  knew  him  well  in  public  and  private  on 
whom  his  weaknesses  made  so  disproportionate  an  impres- 
sion that  they  can  see  in  him  little  more  than  a  mere  char- 
latan. This  is  entirely  unjust.  He  was  a  man  of  great 
abilities  and  earnestness,  who  had  in  him  a  strange  dash 
of  the  play-actor,  who  at  the  most  serious  moment  of  emer- 
gency always  thought  of  how  to  display  himself  effectively, 
and  who  would  have  met  the  peril  of  an  empire  as  poor 
Narcissa  met  death,  with  an  overmastering  desire  to  show 
to  the  best  personal  advantage. 

Lord  Ellenborough 's  appointment  was  hailed  by  all 
parties  in  India  as  the  most  auspicious  that  could  be  made. 
Here,  people  said,  is  surely  the  great  stage  for  a  great 
actor ;  and  now  the  great  actor  is  coming.  There  would 
be  something  fascinating  to  a  temper  like  his  in  the 
thought  of  redeeming  the  military  honor  of  his  country 
and  standing  out  in  history  as  the  avenger  of  the  shames 
of  Cabul.  But  those  who  thought  in  this  way  found  them- 
selves suddenly  disappointed.  Lord  Ellenborough  uttered 
and  wrote  a  few  showy  sentences  about  revenging  our 
losses  and  "re-establishing  in  all  its  original  brilliancy 
our  military  character. "  But  when  he  had  done  this  he 
seemed  to  have  relieved  his  mind  and  to  have  done  enough. 
With  him  there  was  a  constant  tendency  to  substitute 
grandiose  phrases  for  deeds;  or  perhaps  to  think  that  the 
phrase  was  the  thing  of  real  moment.  He  said  these  fine 
words,  and  then  at  once  he  announced  that  the  only  object 
of  the  Government  was  to  get  the  troops  out  of  Afghan- 
istan as  quickly  as  might  be,  and  almost  on  any  terms. 
The  whole  of  Lord  Ellenborough's  conduct  during  this 
crisis  is  inexplicable,  except  on  the  assumption  that  he 
really  did  not  know  at  certain  times  how  to  distinguish 
between   phrases   and   actions.     A  general  outcry  was 


i 


■;^i 


204 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


It 


■■••••  i,  ■,.  ■\ 


raised  in  India  and  among  the  troops  in  Afghanistan 
against  the  extraordinary  policy  which  Lord  Ellenborough 
propounded.  Englishmen,  in  fact,  refused  to  believe  in 
it;  took  it  as  somethmg  that  must  be  put  aside,  English 
soldiers  could  not  believe  that  they  were  to  be  recalled 
after  defeat ;  they  persisted  in  the  conviction  that,  let  the 
Governor-General  say  what  he  might,  his  intention  must  be 
that  the  army  should  retrieve  its  fame  and  retire  only  after 
complete  victory.  The  Governor-General  himself  after 
a  while  quietly  acted  on  this  interpretation  of  his  meaning. 
He  allowed  the  military  commanders  in  Afghanistan  to 
pull  their  resources  together  and  prepare  for  inflicting 
signal  chastisement  on  the  enemy.  They  were  not  long 
in  doing  this.  They  encountered  the  enemy  wherever  he 
showed  himself  and  defeated  him.  They  recaptured  town 
after  town,  imtil  at  length,  on  September  15th,  1842,  Gen- 
eral Pollock's  force  entered  Cabul.  A  few  days  after,  as 
a  lasting  mark  of  retribution  for  the  crimes  which  had 
been  committed  there,  the  British  commander  ordered  the 
destruction  of  the  great  bazaar  of  Cabul,  where  the  mangled 
remains  of  the  unfortunate  envoy  Macnaghten  had  been 
exhibited  in  brutal  triumph  and  joy  to  the  Afghan  popu- 
lace. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  into  detailed  descriptions 
of  the  successful  progress  of  our  arms.  The  war  may  be 
regarded  as  over.  It  is,  however,  necessary  to  say  some- 
thing of  the  fate  of  the  captives,  or  hostages,  who  were 
hurried  away  that  terrible  January  night  at  the  command 
of  Akbar  Khan.  One  thing  has  first  to  be  told  which  some 
may  now  receive  with  incredulity,  but  which  is,  neverthe- 
less, true — there  was  a  British  general  who  was  disposed 
to  leave  them  to  their  fate  and  take  no  trouble  about  them, 
and  who  declared  himself  under  the  conviction,  from  the 
tenor  of  all  Lord  Ellenborough 's  despatches,  that  the  re- 
covery of  the  prisoners  was  "  a  matter  of  indifference  to 
the  Government. "  There  seems  to  have  been  some  un- 
happy spell  working  against  us  in  all  this  chapter  of  our 


1 

1    1 
■ 

i 

^^^ 

I 


The  Disasters  of  Cabul. 


205 


hanistan 
iborough 
slieve  in 
English 
recalled 
t,  let  the 
must  be 
tily  after 
5lf  after 
leaning, 
listan  to 
iflicting 
lot  long 
•ever  he 
ed  town 
\2,  Gen- 
ifter,  as 
ich  had 
!red  the 
tangled 
d  been 
1  popu- 

iptions 

nay  be 

some- 
were 

imand 
some 

erthe- 

posed 

them, 

tn  the 

le  re- 

ice  to 

e  un- 

)f  our 


history,  by  virtue  of  which  even  its  most  brilliant  pages 
were  destined  to  have  something  ignoble  or  ludicrous 
written  on  them.  Better  counsels,  however,  prevailed. 
General  Pollock  insisted  on  an  eflEort  being  made  to  recover 
the  prisoners  before  the  troops  began  to  return  to  India, 
and  he  appointed  to  this  noble  duty  the  husband  of  one  of 
the  hostage  ladies — Sir  Robert  Sale.  The  prisoners  were 
recovered  with  greater  ease  than  was  expected — so  many 
of  them  as  were  yet  alive.  Poor  General  Elphinstone  had 
long  before  succumbed  to  disease  and  hardship.  The 
ladies  had  gone  through  strange  privations.  Thirty-six 
years  ago  the  tale  of  the  captivity  of  Lady  Sale  and  her 
companions  was  in  every  mouth  all  over  England;  nor  did 
any  civilized  land  fail  to  take  an  interest  in  ths  strange 
and  pathetic  story.  They  were  hurried  from  fort  to  fort, 
as  the  designs  and  the  fortunes  of  Akbar  Khan  dictated 
his  disposal  of  them.  They  suffered  almost  every  fierce 
alternation  of  cold  and  heat.  They  had  to  live  on  the 
coarsest  fare ;  they  were  lodged  in  a  manner  which  would 
have  made  the  most  wretched  prison  accommodation  of  a 
civilized  country  seem  luxurious  by  comparison;  they 
were  in  constant  uncertainty  and  fear,  not  knowing  what 
might  befall.  Yet  they  seem  to  have  held  up  their  cour- 
age and  spirits  wonderfully  well,  and  to  have  kept  the 
hearts  of  the  children  alive  with  mirth  and  sport  at  mo- 
ments of  the  utmost  peril.  Gradually  it  became  more 
and  more  suspected  that  the  fortunes  of  Akbar  Khan  were 
falling.  At  last  it  was  beyond  doubt  that  he  had  been 
completely  defeated.  Then  they  were  hurried  away 
again,  they  knew  not  whither,  through  ever-ascending 
mountain-passes,  under  a  scorching  sun.  They  were  be- 
ing carried  off  to  the  wild,  rugged  regions  of  the  Indian 
Caucasus.  They  were  bestowed  in  a  miserable  fort  at 
Bameean.  They  were  now  under  the  charge  of  one  of 
Akbar  Khan's  soldiers  of  fortune.  This  man  had  begun 
to  suspect  that  things  were  well-nigh  hopeless  with  Akbar 
Khan.     He  was  induced  by  gradual  and  very  cautious  ap- 


i  !1 
I 


I.  I 

M 


206 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


;  f       '       '      .:> 

11  >^ 


I       f , 


proaches  to  enter  into  an  agreement  with  the  prisoners  for 
their  release.  The  English  officers  signed  an  agreement 
with  him  to  secure  him  a  large  reward  and  a  pension  for 
life  if  he  enabled  them  to  escape.  He  accordingly  de- 
clared that  he  renounced  his  allegiance  to  Akbar  Khan ; 
all  the  more  readily  seeing  that  news  came  in  of  the  chief's 
total  defeat  and  flight,  no  one  knew  whither.  The  pris- 
oners and  their  escort,  lately  their  jailer  and  guards,  set 
forth  on  their  way  to  General  Pollock's  camp.  On  their 
way  they  met  the  English  parties  sent  out  to  seek  for  them. 
Sir  Robert  Sale  found  his  wife  again.  "Our  joy,"  says 
one  of  the  rescued  prisoners,  "was  too  great,  too  over- 
whelming, for  tongue  to  utter."  Description,  indeed, 
could  do  nothing  for  the  effect  of  such  a  meeting  but  to 
spoil  it. 

There  is  a  very  diflEerent  ending  to  the  episode  of  the 
English  captives  in  Bokhara.  Colonel  Stoddart,  who  had 
been  sent  to  the  Persian  camp  in  the  beginning  of  all  these 
events  to  insist  that  Persia  must  desist  from  the  siege  of 
Herat,  was  sent  subsequently  on  a  mission  to  the  Ameer 
of  Bokhara.  The  Ameer  received  him  frvorably  at  first, 
but  afterward  became  suspicious  of  English  designs  of 
conquest  and  treated  Stoddart  with  marked  indignity. 
The  Ameer  appears  to  have  been  the  very  model  of  a 
melodramatic  Eastern  tyrant.  He  was  cruel  and  capricious 
as  another  Caligula,  and  perhaps,  in  truth,  quite  as  mad. 
He  threw  Stoddart  into  prison.  Captain  Conolly  was  ap- 
pointed two  years  after  to  proceed  to  Bokhara  and  other 
countries  of  the  same  region.  He  undertook  to  endeavor 
to  effect  the  liberation  of  Stoddart,  but  could  only  succeed 
in  sharing  his  sufferings,  and,  at  last,  his  fate.  The 
Ameer  had  written  a  letter  to  the  Queen  of  England,  and 
the  answer  was  written  by  the  Foreign  Secretary,  referring 
the  Ameer  to  the  Governor-General  of  India.  The  savage 
tyrant  redoubled  the  ill-treatment  of  his  captives.  He 
accused  them  of  being  spies  and  of  giving  help  to  his 
enemies.    The  Indian  Government  were  of  opinion  that 


;  ,1'' 


The  Disasters  of  Cabul, 


2Xf] 


oners  for 
freement 
ision  for 
ingly  de- 
r  Khan; 
le  chief's 
'he  pris- 
ards,  set 
Dn  their 
or  them, 
y,"  says 
00  over- 
indeed, 
g  but  to 

e  of  the 

vho  had 

dl these 

siege  of 

Ameer 

at  first, 

igns  of 

lignity. 

el  of  a 

)ricious 

is  mad. 

i^as  ap- 

other 

deavor 

ucceed 

The 

d,  and 

erring 

avage 

He 

to  his 

that 


the  envoys  had  in  some  manner  exceeded  their  instructions, 
and  that  ConoUy,  in  particular,  had  contributed  by  indis- 
cretion to  his  own  fate.  Nothing,  therefore,  was  done  to 
obtain  their  release  beyond  diplomatic  efforts,  and  appeals 
to  the  magnanimity  of  the  Ameer,  which  had  not  any  par- 
ticular effect.  Dr.  Wolff,  the  celebrated  traveller  and 
missionary,  afterward  undertook  an  expedition  of  his  own 
in  the  hope  of  saving  the  unfortunate  captives;  but  he 
only  reached  Bokhara  in  time  to  hear  that  they  had  been 
put  to  death.  The  moment  and  the  actual  manner  of  their 
death  cannot  be  known  to  positive  certainty,  but  there  is 
little  doubt  that  they  were  executed  on  ine  same  day  by 
the  orders  of  the  Ameer.  The  journals  of  ConoUy  have 
been  preserved  up  to  an  advanced  period  of  his  captivity, 
and  they  relieve  so  far  the  melancholy  of  the  fate  that  fell 
on  the  unfortunate  officers  by  showing  that  the  horrors  of 
their  hopeless  imprisonment  were  so  great  that  their  dear- 
est friends  must  have  been  glad  to  know  of  their  release, 
even  by  the  knife  of  the  executioner.  It  is  perhaps  not 
the  least  bitter  part  of  the  story  that,  in  the  belief  of  many, 
including  the  unfortunate  officers  themselves,  the  course 
pursued  by  the  English  authorities  in  India  had  done  more 
to  hand  them  over  to  the  treacherous  cruelty  of  their 
captor  than  to  release  them  from  his  power.  In  truth, 
the  authorities  in  India  had  had  enough  of  intervention. 
It  would  have  needed  a  great  exigency,  indeed,  to  stir 
them  into  energy  of  action  soon  again  in  Central  Asia. 

This  thrilling  chapter  of  English  history  closes  with 
something  like  a  piece  of  harlequinade.  The  curtain  fell 
amidst  general  laughter.  Only  the  genius  of  Lord  Ellen- 
borough  could  have  turned  the  mood  of  India  and  of  Eng- 
land to  mirth  on  such  a  subject.  Lord  Ellenborough  was 
equal  to  this  extraordinary  feat.  The  never-to-be-forgot- 
ten proclamation  about  the  restoration  to  India  of  the 
gates  of  the  Temple  of  Somnauth,  redeemed  at  Lord 
Ellenborough 's  orders  when  Ghuznee  was  retaken  by  the 
English,  was  first  received  with  incredulity  as  a  practical 


3 


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«.  , 


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208 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


joke;  then  with  one  universal  burst  of  laughter;  then 
with  indignation ;  and  then,  again,  when  the  natural  anger 
had  died  away,  with  laughter  again.  "  My  brothers  and 
my  friends,"  wrote  Lord  EUenborough  **  to  all  the  princes, 
chiefs,  and  people  of  India, " — "  Our  victorious  army  bears 
the  gates  of  the  Temple  of  S'^mnauth  in  triumph  from 
Afghanistan,  and  the  despoiled  tomb  of  Sultan  Mahmoud 
looks  upon  the  ruins  of  Ghuznee.  The  insult  of  eight 
hundred  years  is  at  last  avenged.  The  gates  of  the  Temple 
of  Somnauth,  so  long  the  memorial  of  your  humiliation, 
are  become  the  proudest  record  of  your  national  glory; 
the  proof  of  your  superiority  in  arms  over  the  nations  be- 
yond the  Indus. " 

No  words  of  pompous  man  could  possibly  have  put  to- 
gether greater  absurdities.  The  brothers  and  friends  were 
Mohammedans  and  Hindoos,  who  were  about  as  likely  to 
agree  as  to  the  effect  of  these  symbols  of  triumph  as  a 
Fenian  and  an  Orangeman  would  be  to  fraternize  in  a 
toast  to  the  glorious,  pious,  and  immortal  memory.  To 
the  Mohammedans  the  triumph  of  Lord  Ellenborough  was 
simply  an  insult.  To  the  Hindoos  the  offer  was  ridicu- 
lous, for  the  Temple  of  Somnauth  itself  was  in  ruins,  and 
the  ground  it  covered  was  trodden  by  Mohammedans. 
To  finish  the  absurdity,  the  gates  proved  not  to  be  genuine 
relics  at  all. 

On  October  ist,  1842,  exactly  four  years  since  T;ord 
Auckland's  proclamation  annotmcing  and  justifying  the 
intervention  to  restore  Shah  Soojah,  Lord  Ellenborough 
issued  another  proclamation  announcing  the  complete 
failure  and  the  revocation  of  the  policy  of  his  predecessor. 
Lord  Ellenborough  declared  that "  to  force  a  sovereign 
upon  a  reluctant  people  would  be  as  inconsistent  with  the 
policy  as  it  is  with  the  principles  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment ;"  that,  therefore,  they  would  recognize  any  govern- 
ment approved  by  the  Afghans  themselves ;  that  the  British 
arms  would  be  withdrawn  from  Afghanistan,  and  that  the 
Government  of  India  would  remain  "content  with  the 


Mi  ^ 


Ih  i 


The  Disasters  of  Cabul. 


209 


jereign 

iith  the 

lovern- 

lovern- 

Iritish 

lat  the 

h  the 


limits  nature  appears  to  have  assigned  to  its  empire." 
Dost  Mahomed  was  released  from  his  captivity,  and  be- 
fore long  was  ruler  of  Cabul  once  again.  Thus  ended  the 
story  of  our  expedition  to  reorganize  the  internal  condi- 
tion of  Afghanistan.  After  four  years  of  unparalleied 
trial  and  disaster,  everything  was  restored  to  the  condition 
in  which  we  found  it,  except  that  there  were  so  many 
brave  Englishmen  sleeping  in  bloody  graves.  The  Duke 
of  Wellington  ascribed  the  causes  of  our  failure  to  making 
war  with  a  peace  establishment ;  making  war  without  a 
safe  base  of  operations ;  carrying  the  native  army  out  of 
India  into  a  strange  and  cold  climate ;  invading  a  poor 
country  which  was  unequal  to  the  supply  of  our  wants ; 
giving  undue  power  to  political  agents;  want  of  fore- 
thought and  undue  confidence  in  the  Afghans  on  the  part 
of  Sir  W.  Macnaghten ;  placing  our  magazines,  even  our 
treasure,  in  indefensible  places;  great  military  neglect 
and  mismanagement  after  the  outbreak.  Doubtless  these 
were,  in  a  military  sense,  the  reasons  for  the  failure  of 
an  enterprise  which  cost  the  revenues  of  India  an  enormous 
amount  of  treasure.  But  the  causes  of  failure  were  deeper 
than  any  military  errors  could  explain.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  the  genius  of  a  Napoleon  and  the  forethought  of 
a  Wellington  could  have  won  any  permanent  success  for 
an  enterprise  founded  on  so  false  and  fatal  a  policy. 
Nothing  in  the  ability  or  devotion  of  those  intrusted  with 
the  task  of  carrying  it  out  could  have  made  it  deserve  suc- 
cess. Our  first  error  of  principle  was  to  go  completely 
out  of  our  way  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  mere  speculative 
dangers ;  our  next  and  far  greater  error  was  made  wh  n  we 
attempted,  in  .he  words  of  Lord  Ellenborongh's  proclama- 
tion, to  force  a  sovereign  upon  a  reluctant  people. 
Vol.  It— 14 


CHAPTER  XII. 


/;   («. 


HlM'i  5"' 


mi  '<. 


■Hi! 


THE     REPEAL    YEAR. 

"The  year  1843,"  said  O'Connell,  "is  and  shall  be  the 
great  Repeal  year. "  In  the  year  1843,  at  all  events,  O'Con- 
nell and  his  Repeal  agitation  are  entitled  to  the  foremost 
place.  The  character  of  the  man  himself  well  deserves 
some  calm  consideration.  We  are  now,  perhaps,  in  a  con- 
dition to  do  it  justice.  We  are  far  removed  in  sentiment 
and  political  association,  if  not  exactly  in  years,  from  the 
time  when  O'Connell  was  the  idol  of  one  party,  and  the 
object  of  all  the  bitterest  scorn  and  hatred  of  the  other. 
No  man  of  his  time  was  so  madly  worshipped  and  so 
fiercely  denounced.  No  man  in  our  time  was  ever  the  ob- 
ject of  so  much  abuse  ir  the  newspapers.  The  fiercest 
and  coarsest  attacks  that  we  can  remember  to  have  been 
made  in  English  journals  on  Cobden  and  Bright  during 
the  heat  of  the  Anti-Com-law  agitation  seem  placid,  gentle, 
and  almost  complimentary  when  compared  with  the  criti- 
cisms daily  applied  to  O'Connell.  The  only  vituperation 
which  could  equal  in  vehemence  and  scurrility  that  poured 
out  upon  O'Connell  was  that  which  O'Connell  himself 
poured  out  upon  his  assailants.  His  hand  was  against 
every  man,  if  every  man's  hand  was  against  him.  He 
asked  for  no  quarter,  and  he  gave  none. 

We  have  outlived  not  the  times  merely,  but  the  whole 
spirit  of  the  times,  so  far  as  political  controversy  is  con- 
cerned. We  are  now  able  to  recognize  the  fact  that  a 
public  man  may  hold  opinions  which  are  distasteful  to  the 
majority,  and  yet  be  perfectly  sincere  and  worthy  of  re- 
spect. W'i  are  well  aware  that  a  man  may  differ  from  us, 
even  on  vital  questions,  and  yet  be  neither  fool  nor  knave. 


11  be  the 
s,  O 'Con- 
foremost 

deserves 
in  a  con- 
entiment 
from  the 

and  the 
lie  other, 
i  and  so 
ir  the  ob- 
}  fiercest 
ave  been 
t  during 
I,  gentle, 

he  criti- 

peration 
poured 
limself 
against 

m.     He 

e  whole 
is  con- 
that  a 
1  to  the 
y  of  re- 
rom  us, 
knave. 


DANIEL  O'CONNELL 
From  the   Painting  by  T.  Carrick 


■}m      * 

^1 ...! 

»'1  ■}  I, 


!',•  ■     ■    k. 


M 


m\}  ■• 


The  Repeal  Year. 


211 


But  this  view  of  things  was  not  generally  taken  in  the 
days  of  O'Connell's  great  agitation.  He  and  his  enemies 
alike  acted  in  their  controversies  on  the  principle  that  a 
political  opponent  is  necessarily  a  blockhead  or  a  scoundrel. 
It  is  strange  and  somewhat  melancholy  to  read  the  stric- 
tures cf  so  enlightened  a  woman  as  Miss  Martineau  upon 
O'Connell.  They  are  all  based  upon  what  a  humorous 
writer  has  called  the  "fiend-in-human-shape  theory." 
Miss  Martineau  not  merely  assumes  that  O'Connell  was 
absolutely  insincere  and  untrustworthy,  but  discourses  of 
him  on  the  assumption  that  he  was  knowingly  and  pur- 
posely a  villain.  Not  only  does  she  hold  that  his  Repeal 
agitation  was  an  unqualified  evil  for  his  country,  and  that 
Repeal,  if  gained,  would  have  been  a  curse  to  it,  but  she 
insists  that  O'Connell  himself  was  thoroughly  convinced 
of  the  facts.  She  devotes  whole  pages  of  lively  and  acrid 
argument  to  prove  not  only  that  O'Connell  was  ruining 
his  country,  but  that  he  knew  he  was  ruining  it,  and  per- 
severed in  his  wickedness  out  ^f  pure  self-seeking.  No 
writer  possessed  of  one-tenth  of  Mi^s  Martineau's  intellect 
and  education  would  now  reason  atter  that  fashion  about 
any  public  man.  If  there  is  any  common  delusion  of  past 
days  which  may  be  taken  as  entirely  exploded  now,  it  is 
the  idea  that  any  man  ever  swayed  vast  masses  of  people, 
and  became  the  idol  and  the  hero  of  a  nation,  by  the 
strength  of  a  conscious  hypocrisy  and  imposture. 

O'Connell  in  this  Repeal  year,  as  he  called  it,  was  by 
far  the  most  prominent  politician  in  these  countries  who 
had  never  been  in  office.  He  had  been  the  patron  of  the 
Melbourne  Ministry,  and  his  patronage  had  proved  baneful 
to  it.  One  of  the  great  ca  ;ses  of  the  detestation  in  which 
the  Melbourne  Whigs  were  held  by  a  vast  number  of  Eng- 
lish people  was  their  alleged  subserviency  to  the  Irish 
agitator.  We  cannot  be  surprised  if  the  English  public 
just  then  was  little  inclined  to  take  an  impartial  estimate 
of  O'Connell.  He  had  attacked  some  of  their  public  men 
in  language  of  the  fiercest  denunciation.     He  had  started 


212 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


1 1 


M      I 


I'    , 


an  agitation  which  seemed  as  if  it  were  directly  meant  to 
bring  about  a  break-up  of  the  Imperial  system  so  lately 
completed  by  the  Act  of  Union.  He  was  opposed  to  the 
existence  of  the  State  Church  in  Ireland.  He  was  the 
bitter  enemy  of  the  Irish  landlord  class — of  the  landlords, 
that  is  to  say,  who  took  their  title  in  any  way  from  Eng- 
land. He  was  familiarly  known  in  the  graceful  contro- 
versy of  the  time  as  the  "  Big  Beggarman. "  It  was  an 
article  of  faith  with  the  general  public  that  he  was  enrich- 
ing himself  at  the  expense  of  a  poor  and  foolish  people. 
It  is  a  matter  of  fact  that  he  had  given  up  a  splendid 
practice  at  the  bar  to  carry  on  his  agitation ;  that  he  lost 
by  the  agitation,  pecuniarily,  far  more  than  he  ever  got 
by  it;  that  he  had  not  himself  received  from  first  to  last 
anything  like  the  amount  of  the  noble  tribute  so  becom- 
ingly and  properly  given  to  Mr.  Cobden,  and  so  honorably 
accepted  by  him ;  and  that  he  died  poor,  leaving  his  sons 
poor.  Indeed,  it  is  a  remarkable  evidence  of  the  purify- 
ing nature  of  any  great  political  cause,  even  where  the 
object  sought  is  but  a  phantom,  that  it  is  hardly  possible 
to  give  a  single  instance  of  a  great  political  agitation  car- 
ried on  in  these  countries  and  in  modern  times  by  leaders 
who  had  any  primary  purpose  of  making  money.  But  at 
that  time  the  general  English  public  were  firmly  convinced 
that  O'Connell  was  simply  keeping  up  his  agitation  for 
the  sake  of  pocketing  "  the  rent. "  Some  of  the  qualities, 
too,  that  specially  endeared  him  to  his  Celtic  countrymen 
made  him  particularly  objectionable  to  Englishmen ;  and 
Englishmen  have  never  been  famous  for  readiness  to  enter 
into  the  feelings  and  accept  the  point  of  view  of  other  peo- 
ples. O'Connell  was  a  thorough  Celt.  He  represented  all 
the  impulsiveness,  the  quick-changing  emotions,  the  pas- 
sionate, exaggerated  loves  and  hatreds,  the  heedlessness 
of  statement,  the  tendency  to  confound  impressions  with 
facts,  the  ebullient  humor — all  the  other  qualities  that  are 
especially  characteristic  of  the  Celt.  The  Irish  people 
were  the  audience  to  which  O'Connell  habitually  played. 


The  Repeal  Year. 


213 


meant  to 
so  lately 
cd  to  the 
was  the 
andlords, 
om  Eng- 
1  contro- 
t  was  an 
s  enrich- 
1  people, 
splendid 
t  he  lost 
ever  got 
it  to  last 
)  becom- 
onorably 
his  sons 
e  purify- 
here  the 
possible 
tion  car- 
leaders 
But  at 
nvinced 
ition  for 
Lialities, 
itrymen 
sn;  and 
0  enter 
ler  peo- 
nted  all 
le  pas- 
essness 
IS  with 
hat  are 
people 
layed. 


It  may,  indeed,  be  said  that  even  in  playing  to  this  audi- 
ence he  commonly  played  to  the  gallery.     As  the  orator 
of  a  popular  assembly,  as  the  orator  of  a  monster  meeting, 
he  probably  never  had  an  equal  in  these  countries.     He 
had  many  of  the  physical  endowments  that  are  especially 
favorable  to  success  in  such  a  sphere.     He  had  a  herculean 
frame,  a  stately  presence,  a  face  capable  of  expressing 
easily  and  effectively  the  most  rapid  alternations  of  mood, 
and  a  voice  which  all  hearers  admit  to  have  been  almost 
unrivalled  for  strength  and  sweetness.      Its  power,  its 
pathos,  its  passion,  its  music  have  been  described  in  words 
of  positive  rapture  by  men  who  detested  O'Connell,  and 
who  would  rather,  if  they  could,  have  denied  to  him  any 
claim  on  public  attention,  even  in  the  matter  of  voice. 
He  spoke  without  studied  preparation,  and  of  course  had 
all  the  defects  of  such  a  style.     He  fell  into  repetition  and 
into  carelessness  oi.  construction;   he  was  hurried  away 
into  exaggeration  and  sometimes  into  mere  bombast.     But 
he  had  all  the  peculiar  success,  too,  which  rewards  the 
orator  who  can  speak  without  preparation.     He  always 
spoke  right  to  the  hearts  of  his  hearers.     On  the  platform 
or  in  Parliament,  whatever  he  said  was  said  to  his  audi- 
ence, and  was  never  in  the  nature  of  a  discourse  delivered 
over  their  heads.     He  entered  the  House  of  Commons 
when  he  was  nearly  fifty-four  years  of  age.     Most  persons 
supposed  that  the  style  of  speaking  he  had  formed,  first  in 
addressing  juries,  and  next  in  rousing  Irish  mobs,  must 
cause  his  failure  when  he  came  to  appeal  to  the  unsym- 
pathetic and  fastidious  House  of  Commons,     But  it  is  cer- 
tain that  O'Connell  became  one  of  the  most  successful 
Parliamentary  orators  of  his  time.     Lord  Jeffrey,  a  profes- 
sional critic,  declared  that  all  other  speakers  in  the  House 
seemed  to  him  only  talking  school -boy  talk  after  he  had 
heard  O'Connell.     No  man  we  now  know  of  is  less  likely 
to  be  carried  away  by  any  of  the  clap-trap  arts  of  a  false 
demagogic  style  than  Mr.  Roebuck ;  and  Mr.  Roebuck  has 
said  that  he  considers  O'Connell  the  greatest  orator  he  ever 


•f  I 


1 

11 

1: 

'■^ 

«      *■■ 

1 

\ 

'■5 

1 

•■> 

^ 

1 

» 
1 

214 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


1  ' 


m 


r  'i 


heard  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Charles  Dickens,  when 
a  reporter  in  the  gallery,  where  he  had  few  equals,  if  any, 
in  his  craft,  put  down  his  pencil  once  when  engaged  in 
reporting  a  speech  of  O'Connell's  on  one  of  the  tithe  riots 
in  Ireland,  and  declared  that  he  could  not  take  notes  of 
the  speech,  so  moved  was  he  by  its  pathos.  Lord  Beacons- 
field,  who  certainly  had  no  great  liking  for  O'Connell,  has 
spoken  in  terms  as  high  as  any  one  could  use  about  his 
power  over  the  House.  But  O'Connell's  eloquence  only 
helped  him  to  make  all  the  more  enemies  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  He  was  reckless  even  there  in  his  denuncia- 
tion, although  he  took  care  never  to  obtrude  on  Parliament 
the  extravagant  and  unmeaning  abuse  of  opponents  which 
delighted  the  Irish  mob  meetings. 

O'Connell  was  a  crafty  and  successful  lawyer.  The 
Irish  peasant,  like  the  Scottish,  is,  or  at  least  then  was, 
remarkably  fond  of  litigation.  He  delighted  in  the  quirks 
and  quibbles  of  law,  and  in  the  triumphs  won  by  the  skill 
of  lawyers  over  opponents.  He  admired  O'Connell  all  the 
more  when  O'Connell  boasted  and  proved  that  he  could 
drive  a  coach  and  six  through  any  Act  of  Parliament. 
One  of  the  pet  heroes  of  Irish  legend  is  a  personage  whose 
cleverness  and  craft  procure  for  him  a  sobriquet  which  has 
been  rendered  into  English  by  the  words  "twists  upon 
twists  and  tricks  upon  tricks."  O'Connell  was  in  the  eyes 
oi  many  of  the  Irish  peasantry  an  embodiment  of  "  twists 
upon  twists  and  tricks  upon  tricl-3,"  enlisted  in  their  cause 
for  the  confusion  of  their  adversaries.  He  had  borne  the 
leading  part  in  carrying  Catholic  emancipation.  He  had 
encountered  all  the  danger  and  responsibility  of  the  some- 
what aggressive  movement  by  which  it  was  finally  secured. 
It  is  true  that  it  was  a  reform  which  in  the  course  of  civili- 
zation must  have  been  carried.  It  had  in  its  favor  all  the 
enlightenment  of  the  time.  The  eloquence  of  the  great- 
est orators,  the  intellect  of  the  truest  philosophers,  the 
prescience  of  the  wisest  statesmen  had  pleaded  for  it  and 
helped  to  make  its  way  clear.     No  man  can  doubt  that  it 


The  Repeal  Year. 


215 


ns,  when 
s,  if  any, 
gaged  in 
[the  riots 
notes  of 
Beacons- 
nell,  has 
ibout  his 
nee  only 
House  of 
lenuncia- 
rliament 
ts  which 

sr.     The 
len  was, 
le  quirks 
the  skill 
11  all  the 
le  could 
liament. 
e  whose 
lich  has 
upon 
ne  eyes 
"twists 
ir  cause 
me  the 
He  had 
5  some- 
cured. 
:  civili- 
an the 
great- 
rs,  the 
it  and 
hat  it 


must  in  a  short  time  have  been  carried  if  O'Connell  had 
never  lived.  But  it  was  carried  just  then  by  virtue  of 
O'Connell 's  bold  agitation,  and  by  the  wise  resolve  of  the 
Tory  Government  not  to  provoke  a  civil  war.  It  is  deeply 
to  be  regretted  that  Catholic  emancipation  was  not  con- 
ceded to  the  claims  of  justice.  Had  it  been  so  yielded,  it 
is  very  doubtful  whether  we  should  ever  have  heard  much 
of  the  Repeal  agitation.  But  the  Irish  people  saw,  and 
indeed  all  the  world  was  made  aware  of  the  fact,  that 
emancipation  would  not  have  been  conceded,  just  then  at 
least,  but  for  the  fear  of  civil  disturbance.  To  an  Eng- 
lishman looking  coolly  back  from  a  distance,  the  difference 
is  clear  between  granting  to-day,  rather  than  provoke  dis- 
turbance, that  which  every  one  sees  must  be  granted  some 
time,  and  conceding  what  the  vast  majority  of  the  English 
people  believe  can  never  with  propriety  or  even  safety  be 
granted  at  all.  But  we  can  hardly  wonder  if  the  Irish 
peasant  did  not  make  such  distinctions.  All  he  knew  was 
that  O'Connell  had  demanded  Catholic  emancipation,  and 
had  been  answered  at  first  by  a  direct  refusal ;  that  he  had 
said  he  would  compel  its  concession,  and  that  in  the  end 
it  was  conceded  to  him.  When,  therefore,  O'Connell  said 
that  he  would  compel  the  Government  to  give  him  repeal 
of  the  Union,  the  Irish  peasant  naturally  believed  that  he 
could  keep  his  word. 

Nor  is  there  any  reason  to  doubt  that  O'Connell  himself 
believed  in  the  possibility  of  accomplishing  his  purpose. 
We  are  apt  now  to  think  of  the  union  between  England 
and  Ireland  as  of  time  honored  endurance.  It  had  been 
scarcely  thirty  years  in  existence  when  O'Connell  entered 
Parliament.  The  veneration  of  ancient  lineage,  the  maj- 
esty of  custom,  the  respect  due  to  the  "  wisdom  of  our  an- 
cestors"— none  of  these  familiar  claims  could  be  urged  on 
behalf  of  the  legislative  union  between  England  and  Ire- 
land. To  O'Connell  it  appeared  simply  as  a  modem  inno- 
vation which  had  nothing  to  be  said  for  it  except  that  a 
majority  of  Englishmen  had  by  threats  and  bribery  forced 


2l6 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


i  '•'\ 


.;  \.' 


./ 


it  on  a  majority  of  Irishmen.  Mr.  Lecky,  the  author  of 
the  "  History  of  European  Morals,"  may  be  cited  as  an  im- 
partial authority  on  such  a  subject.  Let  us  see  what  he 
says  in  his  work  on  "  The  Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in 
Ireland,"  with  regard  to  the  movement  for  repeal  of  the 
Union,  of  which  it  seems  almost  needless  to  say  he  disap- 
proves. "O'Connell  perceived  clearly, "  says  Mr.  Lecky, 
"that  the  tendency  of  affairs  in  Europe  was  toward  the 
recognition  of  the  principle  that  a  nation's  will  is  the  one 
legitimate  rule  of  its  government.  All  rational  men  ac- 
knowledged that  the  Union  was  imposed  on  Ireland  by 
corrupt  means,  contrary  to  the  wish  of  one  generation. 
O'Connell  was  prepared  to  show,  by  the  protest  of  the  vast 
majority  of  the  people,  that  it  was  retained  without  the 
acquiescence  of  the  next.  He  had  allied  himself  with  the 
parties  that  were  rising  surely  and  rapidly  to  power  in 
England — with  the  democracy,  whose  gradual  progress  is 
effacing  the  most  venerable  landmarks  of  the  Constitution 
— with  the  Free-traders,  whose  approaching  triumph  he 
had  hailed  and  exulted  in  from  afar.  He  had  perceived 
the  possibility  of  forming  a  powerful  party  in  Parliament, 
which  would  be  free  to  co-operate  with  all  English  parties 
without  coalescing  with  any,  and  might  thus  turn  the 
balance  of  factions  and  decide  the  fate  of  ministries.  He 
saw,  too,  that  while  England  in  a  time  of  peace  might  re- 
sist the  expressed  will  of  the  Irish  nation,  its  policy  would 
be  necessarily  modified  in  time  of  war;  and  he  predicted 
that  should  there  be  a  collision  with  France  while  the  na- 
tion was  organized  as  in  1843,  Repeal  would  be  the  im- 
mediate and  the  inevitable  consecuence.  In  a  word,  he 
believed  that  under  a  constitutional  government  the  will 
of  four-fifths  of  a  nation,  if  peacefully,  perseveringly,  and 
energetically  expressed,  must  sooner  or  later  be  trium- 
phant. If  a  war  had  broken  out  during  the  agitation — if 
the  life  of  O'Connell  had  been  prolonged  ten  years  longer — 
if  any  worthy  successor  had  assumed  his  mantle — if  a  fear- 
ful famine  had  not  broken  the  spirit  of  the  people — who  can 


S.v 


mthor  of 

as  an  im- 

what  he 

>inion  in 

al  of  the 

he  disap- 

'.  Lecky, 

jvard  the 

3  the  one 

men  ac- 

eland  by 

leration. 

the  vast 

iout  the 

with  the 

ower  in 

:>gress  is 

stitution 

mph  he 

jrceived 

lament, 

parties 

urn  the 

;s.     He 

ight  re- 

''  would 

edicted 

the  na- 

he  im- 

3rd,  he 

le  will 

y,  and 

trium- 

on — if 

iger— 

fear- 

■10  can 


The  Repeal  Year. 


217 


say  that  the  agitation  would  not  have  been  successful?" 
No  one,  we  fancy,  except  those  who  are  always  convinced 
that  nothing  can  ever  come  to  pass  which  they  think  ought 
not  to  come  to  pass.  At  all  events,  if  an  English  political 
philosopher,  surveying  the  events  after  a  distance  of  thirty 
years,  is  of  opinion  that  Repeal  was  possible,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  O'Connell  thought  its  attainment  possible  at 
the  time  when  he  set  himself  to  agitate  for  it.  Even  if 
this  be  not  conceded,  it  will  at  least  be  allowed  that  it  is 
not  very  surprising  if  the  Irish  peasant  saw  no  absurdity 
in  the  movement.  Our  system  of  government  by  party 
does  not  lay  claim  to  absolute  perfection.  It  is  an  excel- 
lent mechanism,  on  the  whole;  it  is  probably  the  most 
satisfactory  that  the  wit  of  man  has  yet  devised  for  the 
management  of  the  affairs  of  a  State ;  but  its  greatest  ad- 
mirers will  bear  to  be  told  that  it  has  its  drawbacks  and 
disadvantages.  One  of  these  undoubtedly  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  so  few  reforms  are  accomplished  in  deference  to 
the  claims  of  justice,  in  comparison  with  those  that  are 
yielded  to  the  pressure  of  numbers.  A  great  English 
statesman  in  our  own  day  once  said  that  Parliament  had 
done  many  just  things,  but  few  things  because  they  were 
just.  O'Connell  and  the  Irish  people  saw  that  Catholic 
emancipation  had  been  yielded  to  pressure  rather  than  to 
justice ;  it  is  not  wonderful  if  they  thought  that  pressure 
might  prevail  as  well  in  the  matter  of  Repeal, 

In  many  respects  O'Connell  differed  from  more  modem 
Irish  Nationalists.  He  was  a  thorough  Liberal.  He  was 
a  devoted  opponent  of  negro  slavery;  he  was  a  stanch 
Free-trader ;  he  was  a  friend  of  popular  education ;  he  was 
an  enemy  to  all  excess ;  he  was  opposed  to  strikes ;  he  was 
an  advocate  of  religious  equality  everywhere ;  and  he  de- 
clined to  receive  the  commands  of  the  Vatican  in  his 
political  agitation.  "I  am  a  Catholic,  but  I  am  not  a 
Papist,"  was  his  own  definition  of  his  religious  attitude. 
He  preached  the  doctrine  of  constitutional  agitation 
strictly,  and  declared  that  no  political  Reform  was  worth 


2l8 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


I  ■  :■ ! 


:n-''  f 


■'M  ■  % 


I         h  ■ 


-ri     i 


the  shedding  of  one  drop  of  blood.  It  may  be  asked  how 
it  came  about  that  with  all  these  excellent  attributes, 
which  all  critics  now  allow  to  him,  O'Connell  was  so  de- 
tested by  the  vast  majority  of  the  English  people.  One 
reason,  undoubtedly,  is,  that  O'Connell  deliberately  re- 
vived and  worked  up  for  his  political  purposes  the  almost 
extinct  national  hatreds  of  Celt  and  Saxon.  As  a  phrase 
of  political  controversy,  he  may  be  said  to  have  in .  ented 
the  word  "Saxon."  He  gave  a  terrible  license  to  his 
tongue.  His  abuse  was  outrageous ;  his  praise  was  out- 
rageous. The  very  effusiveness  of  his  loyalty  told  to  his 
disadvantage.  People  could  not  understand  how  one  who 
perpetually  denounced  "  the  Saxon"  could  be  so  enthusi- 
astic and  rapturous  in  his  professions  of  loyalty  to  the  Sax- 
on's Queen.  In  the  common  opinion  of  Englishmen,  all 
the  evils  of  Ireland,  all  the  troubles  attaching  to  the  con- 
nection between  the  two  countries,  had  arisen  from  this 
unmitigated,  rankling  hatred  of  Celt  for  Saxon.  It  was 
impossible  for  them  to  believe  that  a  man  who  deliberately 
applied  all  the  force  of  his  eloquence  to  revive  it  could  be 
a  genuine  patriot.  It  appeared  intolerable  that  while  thus 
laboring  to  make  the  Celt  hate  the  Saxon  he  should  yet 
profess  an  extravagant  devotion  to  the  Sovereign  of  Eng- 
land. Yet  O'Connell  war,  probably  quite  sincere  in  his 
professions  of  loyalty.  He  was  in  no  sense  a  revolutionist. 
He  had  from  his  education  in  a  French  college  acquired 
an  early  detestation  of  the  principles  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution. Of  the  Irish  rebels  of  '98  he  spoke  with  as  savage 
an  intolerance  as  the  narrowest  English  Tories  could  show 
in  speaking  of  himself.  The  Tones,  and  Emmetts,  and 
Fitzgeralds,  whom  so  many  of  the  Irish  people  adored, 
were,  in  O'Connell's  eyes,  and  in  his  words,  only  "a  gang 
of  miscreants. "  He  grew  angry  at  the  slightest  expres- 
sion of  an  opinion  among  his  followers  that  seemed  to  de- 
note even  a  willingness  to  discuss  any  of  the  doctrines  of 
Communism.  His  theory  and  his  policy  evidently  were 
that  Ireland  was  to  be  saved  by  a  dictatorship  intrusted  to 


The  Repeal  Year. 


m 


219 


himself,  with  the  Irish  priesthood  acting  as  his  officers 
and  agents.  He  maintained  the  authority  of  the  priests, 
and  his  own  authority  by  means  of  them  and  over  them. 
The  political  system  of  the  country  for  the  purposes  of 
agitation  was  to  be  a  sor*  of  hierarchy ;  the  parish  priests 
occupying  the  lowest  gfrade,  the  bishops  standing  on  the 
higher  steps,  and  O'Connell  himself  supreme,  as  the  pon- 
tiff, over  all. 

He  had  a  Parliamentary  system  by  means  of  which  he 
proposed  to  approach  more  directly  the  question  of  Repeal 
of  the  Union.  He  got  seats  in  the  House  of  Commons  for 
a  number  of  his  sons,  his  nephews,  and  his  sworn  retainers. 
"  O'Connell's  tail"  was  the  precursor  of  "  the  Pope's  Brass 
Band"  in  the  slang  of  the  House  of  Commons.  He  had 
an  almost  supreme  control  over  the  Irish  constituencies, 
and  whenever  a  vacancy  took  place  he  sent  down  the  Re- 
peal candidate  to  contest  it.  He  always  inculcated  and 
insisted  on  the  necessity  of  order  and  peace.  Indeed,  as 
he  proposed  to  carry  on  his  agitation  altogether  by  the 
help  of  the  bishops  and  the  priests,  it  was  not  possible  for 
him,  even  were  he  so  inclined,  to  conduct  it  on  any  other 
than  peaceful  principles.  "  The  man  who  commits  a  crime 
gives  strength  to  the  enemy,"  was  a  maxim  which  he  was 
never  weary  of  impressing  upon  his  followers.  The 
Temperance  movement  set  on  foot  with  stich  remarkable 
and  sudden  success  by  Father  Mathew  was  at  once  turned 
to  account  by  O'Connell.  He  was  himself,  in  his  later 
years  at  all  events,  a  very  temperate  man,  and  he  was  de- 
lighted at  the  prospect  of  good  order  and  discipline  whicli 
the  Temperance  movement  afforded.  Father  Mathew  was 
very  far  from  sharing  all  the  political  opinions  of  O'Con- 
nell. The  sweet  and  simple  friar,  whose  power  was  that 
of  goodness  and  enthusiasm  only,  and  who  had  but  little 
force  of  character  or  intellect,  shrank  from  political  agita- 
tion, and  was  rather  Conservative  than  otherwise  in  his 
views.  But  he  could  not  afford  to  repudiate  the  support 
of  O'Connell,  who  on  all  occasions  glorified  the  Temper- 


^n 


220 


j4  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


;>i  1'' 


'\i 


M  r: 


ance  movement,  and  called  upon  his  followers  to  join  it, 
and  was  always  boasting  of  his  "  noble  army  of  Teetotal- 
lers. "  It  was  probably  when  he  found  that  the  mere  fact 
of  his  having  supported  the  Melbourne  Government  did 
so  much  to  discredit  that  Government  in  the  eyes  of  Eng- 
lishmen, and  to  bring  about  its  fall,  that  O'Connell  went 
deliberately  out  of  the  path  of  mere  Parliamentary  agita- 
tion, and  started  that  system  of  agitation  by  monster  meet- 
ing which  has  since  his  time  been  regularly  established 
among  us  as  a  principal  part  of  all  political  organization 
for  a  definite  purpose.  He  founded  in  Dublin  a  Repeal 
Association  which  met  in  a  place  on  Burgh  Quay,  and 
which  he  styled  Conciliation  Hall.  Around  him  in  this 
Association  he  gathered  his  sons,  his  relatives,  his  devoted 
followers,  priestly  and  lay.  The  Nation  newspaper,  then 
in  its  youth  and  full  of  a  fresh  literary  vigor,  was  one  of 
his  most  brilliant  instruments.  At  a  later  period  of  the 
agitation  it  was  destined  to  be  used  against  him,  and  with 
severe  effect.  The  famous  monster  meetings  were  usually 
held  on  a  Sunday,  on  some  open  spot,  mostly  selected  for 
its  historic  fame,  and  with  all  the  picturesque  surroundings 
of  hill  and  stream.  From  the  dawn  of  the  summer  day 
the  Repealers  were  thronging  to  the  scene  of  the  meeting. 
They  came  from  all  parts  of  the  neighboring  country  for 
miles  and  miles.  They  were  commonly  marshalled  and 
guided  by  their  parish  priests.  They  all  attended  the 
services  of  their  Church  before  the  meeting  began.  The 
influence  of  his  religion  and  of  his  patriotic  feelings  was 
brought  to  bear  at  once  upon  the  impressionable  and  emo- 
tional Irish  Celt.  At  the  meeting  O'Connell  and  several 
of  his  chosen  orators  addressed  the  crowd  on  the  subject 
of  the  wrongs  done  to  Ireland  by  "the  Saxon,"  the  claims 
of  Ireland  to  the  restoration  of  her  old  Parliament  in  Col- 
lege Green,  and  the  certainty  of  her  having  it  restored  if 
Irishmen  only  obeyed  O'Connell  and  their  priests,  were 
sober,  and  displayed  their  strength  and  their  unity. 
O'Connell  himself,  it  is  needless  to  say,  was  always  the 


■/   I 


The  Repeal  Year. 


221 


join  it, 
^eetotal- 
lere  fact 
lent  did 
of  Eng- 
ell  went 
y  agita- 
Jr  meet- 
iblished 
lization 
Repeal 
ay,  and 
in  this 
ievoted 
jr,  then 
one  of 
i  of  the 
id  with 
usually 
ted  for 
ndings 
er  day 
seting. 
try  for 

and 
id  the 

The 

rs  was 

emo- 

veral 

ibject 

laims 

I  Col- 

ed  if 

were 

s  the 


great  orator  of  the  day.  The  agitation  developed  a  great 
deal  of  literary  talent  among  the  young^er  men  of  educa- 
tion ;  but  it  never  brought  out  a  man  who  was  even  spoken 
of  as  a  possible  successor  to  O'Connell  in  eloquence.  His 
magnificent  voice  enabled  him  to  do  what  no  genius  and 
no  eloquence  less  aptly  endowed  could  have  done.  He 
could  send  his  lightest  word  thrilling  to  the  extreme  of 
the  vast  concourse  of  people  whom  he  desired  to  move. 
He  swayed  them  with  the  magic  of  an  absolute  control. 
He  understood  all  the  moods  of  his  people;  to  address 
himself  to  them  came  naturally  to  him.  He  made  them 
roar  with  laughter ;  he  made  them  weep ;  he  made  them 
thrill  with  indignation.  As  the  shadow  runs  over  a  field, 
so  the  impression  of  his  varying  eloquence  ran  over  th» 
assemblage.  He  commanded  the  emotions  of  his  hearers 
as  a  consummate  conductor  sways  the  energies  of  his  or- 
chestra. Every  allusion  told.  When,  in  one  of  the  meet- 
ings held  in  his  native  Kerry,  he  turned  solemnly  round 
and  appealed  to  "  yonder  blue  mountains  where  you  and  I 
were  cradled;"  or  in  sight  of  the  objects  he  described  he 
apostrophized  Ireland  as  the  "land  of  the  green  valley 
and  the  rushing  river" — an  admirably  characteristic  and 
complete  description;  or  recalled  some  historical  associa- 
tion connected  with  the  scene  he  surveyed — each  was  some 
special  appeal  to  the  instant  feelings  of  his  peculiar  audi- 
ence. Sometimes  he  indulged  in  the  grossest  and  what 
ought  to  have  been  the  most  ridiculous  flattery  of  his  hear- 
ers— flattery  which  would  have  offended  and  disgusted  the 
dullest  English  audience.  But  the  Irish  peasant,  with  all 
his  keen  sense  of  the  ridiculous  in  others,  is  singularly 
open  to  the  influence  of  any  appeal  to  his  own  vanity 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  the  "eternal-womanly"  in  the 
Celtic  nature,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  overflatter  one  of  the 
race.  Doubtless  O'Connell  knew  this,  and  acted  purposely 
on  it ;  and  this  was  a  peculiarity  of  his  political  conduct 
which  it  would  be  hard  indeed  to  commend  or  even  to  de- 
fend.    But,  in  truth,  he  adopted  in  his  agitation  the  tactics 


222 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


ri  :t 


he  had  employed  at  the  bar.  "  A  good  speech  is  a  good 
thing,"  he  used  to  say;  "but  the  verdict  is  the  thing." 
His  flattery  of  his  hearers  was  not  grosser  than  his  abuse 
of  all  those  whom  they  did  not  like.  His  dispraise  often 
had  absolutely  no  meaning  in  it.  There  was  no  sense 
whatever  in  calling  the  Duke  of  Wellington  "  a  stunted 
corporal ;'"  one  might  as  well  have  called  Mont  Blanc  a 
mole-hill.  Nobody  could  have  shown  more  clearly  than 
O'Connell  did  that  he  did  not  believe  the  Times  to  be  "an 
obscure  rag."  It  would  have  been  as  humorous  and  as 
truthful  to  say  that  there  was  no  such  paper  as  the  Times. 
But  these  absurdities  made  an  ignorant  audience  laugh  for 
the  moment,  and  O'Connell  had  gained  the  only  point  he 
just  then  wanted  to  carry.  He  would  probably  have  an- 
swered any  one  who  remonstrated  with  him  on  the  disin- 
genuousness  of  such  sayings  as  Mrs.  Thrale  says  Burke 
once  answered  her  when  she  taxed  him  with  a  want  of 
literal  accuracy,  by  quoting,  "  Odds  life,  must  one  swear 
to  the  truth  of  a  song?"  But  this  recklessness  of  epithet 
and  description  did  much  to  make  O'Connell  distrusted 
and  disliked  in  England,  where,  in  whatever  heat  of  polit- 
ical controversy,  words  are  supposed  to  be  the  expressions 
of  some  manner  of  genuine  sentiment.  Of  course  many 
of  O'Connell's  abusive  epithets  were  not  only  full  of  hu- 
mor, but  did,  to  some  extent,  fairly  represent  the  weak- 
nesses at  least  of  those  against  whom  they  were  directed. 
Some  of  his  historical  allusions  were  of  a  more  mischievous 
nature  than  any  mere  personalities  could  have  been. 
"Peel  and  Wellington,"  he  said  at  Kilkenny,  "may  be 
second  Cromwells;  they  may  get  Cromwell's  blunted 
truncheon,  and  they  may — oh,  sacred  heavens! — enact  on 
the  fair  occupants  of  that  gallery"  (pointing  to  the  ladies' 
gallery)  "  the  murder  of  the  Wexford  women.  Let  it  not 
be  supposed  that  when  I  made  that  appeal  to  the  ladies  it 
was  but  a  flight  of  my  imagination.  No!  v;hen  Cromwell 
entered  the  town  of  Wexford  by  treachery,  three  hundred 
ladies,  the  beauty  and  loveliness  of  Wexford,  the  young 


r'4i    ' 


The  Repeal  Year. 


22^ 


an 


and  the  old,  the  maid  and  the  matron,  were  collected 
round  the  Cross  of  Christ;  they  prayed  to  Heaven  for 
mercy,  and  I  hope  they  found  it ;  they  prayed  to  the  Eng- 
lish for  humanity,  and  Cromwell  slaughtered  them.  I  tell 
you  this :  three  hundred  women,  the  grace  and  beauty  and 
virtue  of  Wexford,  were  slaughtered  by  the  English  ruf- 
fians— sacred  heaven!"  He  went  on  then  to  assure  his 
hearers  that  "  the  ruffianly  Saxon  paper,  the  Times,  in  the 
number  received  by  me  to-day,  presumes  to  threaten  us 
again  with  such  a  scene. "  One  woula  like  to  see  the  copy 
of  the  Times  which  contained  3uch  a  threat,  or,  indeed, 
any  words  that  could  be  tortured  into  a  semblance  of  any 
such  hideous  meaning.  But  the  great  agitator,  when  he 
found  that  he  had  excited  enougi^  the  horror  of  his  audi- 
ence, proceeded  to  reassure  them  by  the  means  of  all  others 
most  objectionable  and  dangercyus  at  such  a  time.  "  I  am 
not  imaginative,"  he  said,  "when  I  talk  of  the  possibility 
of  such  scenes  anew;  but  yet  I  assert  that  there  is  no 
danger  to  our  women  now,  for  the  men  of  Ireland  would 
die  to  the  last  in  their  defence."  Here  the  whole  meeting 
broke  into  a  storm  of  impassioned  cheering.  "Ay,"  the 
orator  exclaimed,  when  the  storm  found  a  momentary 
hush,  "we  were  a  paltry  remnant  then;  we  are  millions 
now."  At  Mullaghmast,  O'Connell  made  an  impassioned 
allusion  to  the  massacre  of  Irish  chieftains,  said  to  have 
taken  place  on  that  very  spot  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth. "  Three  hundred  and  ninety  Irish  chiefs  perished 
here!  They  came,  confiding  in  Saxon  honor,  relying  on 
the  protection  of  the  Queen,  to  a  friendly  conference.  In 
the  midst  of  revelry,  in  the  cheerful  light  of  the  banquet- 
house,  they  were  surrounded  and  butchered.  None  re- 
turned save  one.  Their  wives  were  widows,  their  chil- 
dren fatherless.  In  their  homesteads  was  heard  the  shrill 
shriek  of  despair — the  cry  of  bitter  agony.  Oh,  Saxon 
cruelty,  how  it  cheers  my  heart  to  think  you  dare  not  at- 
tempt such  a  deed  again !"  It  is  not  necessary  to  point 
out  what  the  efiEect  of  such  descriptions  and  such  allusions 


224 


//  History  of  Our  Oivn  Times. 


\h  \ 


'  < } 


■■■■     I    .'ii 


must  have  been  upon  an  cxcil.able  and  an  ignorant  peasant 
audience — on  men  who  were  ready  to  believe  in  all  sin- 
cerity that  England  only  wanted  the  opportunity  to  re-en- 
act,  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria,  the  scenes  of  Eliza- 
beth's  or  Cromwell's  day. 

The  late  Lord  Lyi^on  has  given,  in  his  poem,  "St. 
Stephens,"  a  picturesque  description  of  one  of  these  meet- 
ings, and  of  the  effect  produced  upon  himself  by  O'Con- 
nell's  eloquence.  "Once  to  my  sight,"  be  says,  "the 
giant  thus  was  given ;  walled  by  wide  air  and  roofed  by 
boundless  heaven."  He  describes  "the  human  ocean" 
lying  spread  out  at  the  giant's  feet;  its  "wave  on  wave" 
flowing  "in I o  space  away."  Not  unnaturally,  Lord  Lyt- 
ton  thought "  no  clarion  could  have  sent  its  sound  even  to 
the  centre"  of  that  crowd. 

"And  as  I  thought,  rose  the  sonorovs  swell 
As  frotr  some  church  tower  swings  the  silvery  bell ; 
Aloft  and  clear  from  airy  tide  to  tide, 
It  glided  easy  as  a  bird  may  glide. 
To  the  last  verge  of  that  vast  audience  sent, 
It  played  with  each  wild  passion  as  it  went ; 
Now  stirred  the  uproar — now  the  murmur  stilled, 
And  sobs  or  laughter  answered  as  it  willed. 
Then  did  I  know  what  spells  of  infinite  choice 
To  rousv^  or  lull  has  the  sweet  human  voice. 
Then  did  I  learn  to  seize  the  sudden  clew 
To  the  grand  troublous  life  antique — to  view, 
Under  the  roclc-stand  of  Demosthenes, 
Unstable  Athens  heave  her  noisy  seas. " 

The  crowds  who  attended  the  monster  meetings  came 
in  a  sort  of  military  order  and  with  a  certain  parade  of 
military  discipline.  At  the  meeting  held  on  the  Hill  of 
Tara,  where  O'Connell  stood  beside  the  stone  said  to  have 
been  used  for  the  coronation  of  the  ancient  monarchs  of 
Ireland,  it  is  declared,  on  the  authority  of  careful  and  un- 
sj  mpathetic  witnesses,  that  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  peo- 
ple must  have  been  present.  The  Government  naturally 
felt  that  there  was  a  very  considerable  danger  in  the  mass- 


The  Repeal  Year. 


22^1 


came 
ide  of 

[ill  of 
have 

:hs  of 

id  un- 
[f  peo- 
lurally 
1  mass- 


ing together  of  such  vast  crowds  of  men  in  something  liko 
military  array  and  uuder  the  absolute  leadership  of  one 
man,  who  openly  avowed  that  he  had  called  them  together 
to  show  England  what  was  the  strength  her  statesmen 
would  have  to  fear  if  they  continued  to  deny  Repeal  to  his 
demand.     It  is  certain  now  that  O'Connell  did  not  at  any 
time  mean  to  employ  force  for  the  attainment  of  his  ends. 
But  it  is  equally  certain  that  he  wished  the  English  Gov- 
ernment to  see  that  he  had  the  command  of  an  immense 
number  of  men,  and  probably  even  to  believe  that  he 
would,  if  needs  were,  hurl  them  in  rebellion  upon  Eng- 
land if  ever  she  should  be  embarrassed  with  a  foreign  war. 
It  is  certain,  too,  that  many  of  O'Connell's  most  ardent 
admirers,  especially  among  the  young  men,  were  fully 
convinced  that  some  day  or  other  their  leader  would  call 
on  them  to  fight,  and  were  much  disappointed  when  they 
found  that  he  had  no  such  intention.     The  Government 
at  last  resolved  to  interfere.     A  meeting  was  announced 
to  be  held     t  Clontarf  on  Sunday,   October  8th,    1843. 
Clontarf  is  near  Dublin,  and  is  famous  in  Irish  history  as 
the  scene  of  a  g^eat  victory  of  the  Irish  over  their  Danish 
invaders.     It  was  intended  that  this  meeting  should  sur- 
pass in  numbers  and  in  earnestness  the  assemblage  at  Tara. 
On  the  very  day  before  the  8th  the  Lord-Lieutenant  issued 
a  proclamation  prohibiting  the  meeting  as  "  calculated  to 
excite  reasonable  and  well-gfrounded  apprehension,"  in 
that  its  object  was  "  to  accomplish  alterations  in  the  laws 
and  constitution  of  the  realm  by  intimidation  and  the  de- 
monstration of  physical  force."    O'Connell's  power  over 
the  people  was  never  shown  more  effectively  than  in  the 
control  which  at  that  critical  moment  he  was  still  able  to 
exercise.     The  populations  were  already  coming  in  to 
Clontarf  in  streams  from  all  the  country  round  when  the 
proclamation  of  the  Lord- Lieutenant  was  issued.   No  doubt 
the  Irish  Government  ran  a  terrible  risk  when  they  delayed 
so  long  the  issue  of  their  proclamation.     With  the  people 
already  assembling  in  such  masses,  the  risk  of  a  collision 
Vol.  I.— 15 


■';,  !■ 


226 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


with  the  police  and  the  soldiery,  and  of  a  consequent  mas- 
sacre, is  something  still  shocking  to  contemplate.  It  is 
not  surprising,  perhaps,  if  O'Connell  and  many  of  his  fol- 
lowers made  it  a  charge  against  the  Government  that  they 
intended  to  bring  about  such  a  collision  in  order  to  make 
an  example  of  some  of  the  Repealers,  and  thus  strike  ter- 
ror through  the  country.  Some  sort  of  collision  would  al- 
ipost  undoubtedly  have  occurred  but  for  the  promptitude 
of  O'Connell  himself.  He  at  once  issued  a  proclamation 
of  his  own,  to  which  the  populations  were  likely  to  pay  far 
more  attention  than  they  would  to  anything  coming  from 
Dublin  Castle.  O'Connell  declared  that  the  orders  of  the 
Lord- Lieutenant  must  be  obeyed ;  that  the  meeting  must 
not  take  place ;  and  that  the  people  must  return  to  their 
homes.  The  "uncrowned  king,"  as  some  of  his  admirers 
loved  to  call  him,  was  obeyed,  and  no  meeting  was  held. 

From  that  moment,  however,  the  great  power  of  the 
Repeal  agitation  was  gone.  The  Government  had  accom- 
plished far  more  by  their  proclamation  than  they  could 
possibly  have  imagined  at  the  time.  They  had,  without 
knowing  it,  compelled  O'Connell  to  show  his  hand.  It 
was  now  made  clear  that  he  did  not  intend  to  have  resort 
to  force.  From  that  hour  there  was  virtually  a  schism 
between  the  elder  Repealers  and  the  younger.  The  young 
and  fiery  followers  of  the  great  agitator  lost  all  faith  in 
him.  It  would  in  any  case  have  been  impossible  to  main- 
tain for  any  very  long  time  the  state  of  national  tension  in 
which  Ireland  had  been  kept.  It  must  soon  come  either 
to  a  climax  or  to  an  anti-climax.  It  came  to  an  anti-climax. 
All  the  imposing  demonstre.tions  of  physical  strength  lost 
their  value  when  it  was  made  positively  known  that  they 
were  only  demonstrations,  and  that  nothing  was  ever  to 
come  of  them.  The  eye  of  an  attentive  foreigner  was  then 
fixed  on  Ireland  and  on  O'Connell ;  the  eye  of  one  destined 
to  play  a  part  in  the  political  history  of  our  time  which 
none  other  has  surpassed.  Count  Cavour  had  not  long  re- 
turned to  his  own  country  from  a  visit  made  with  the  ex- 


It  mas- 
It  is 

his  fol- 
,at  they 

0  make 
ke  ter- 
3uld  al- 
ptitude 
imation 

1  pay  far 
\g  from 
s  of  the 
ig  must 
to  their 
dmirers 
}  held. 

•  of  the 
,  accom- 
y  could 
[Without 
md.     It 
resort 
schism 
young 
faith  in 
0  main- 
ision  in 
either 
climax, 
th  lost 
at  they 
ver  to 
as  then 
estined 
which 
ang  re- 
he  ex- 


Tbe  Repeal  Year. 


M7 


press  purpose  of  studying  the  politics  and  the  general  con- 
dition of  England  and  Ireland.  He  wrote  to  a  friend  about 
the  crisis  then  passing  in  Ireland.  "  When  one  is  at  a  dis- 
tance," he  said,  "from  the  theatre  of  events,  it  is  easy  to 
make  prophecies  which  have  already  been  contradicted  by 
facts.  But  according  to  my  view  O'Connell's  fate  is  sealed. 
On  the  first  vigorous  demonstration  of  his  opponents  he 
has  drawn  back ;  from  that  moment  he  has  ceased  to  be 
dangerous."  Cavour  was  perfectly  right.  It  was  never 
again  possible  to  bring  the  Irish  people  up  to  the  pitch  of 
enthusiasm  which  O'Connell  had  wrought  them  to  before 
the  suppression  of  the  Clontarf  meeting ;  and  before  long 
the  Irish  national  movement  had  split  in  two. 

The  Government  at  once  proceeded  to  the  prosecution  of 
O'Connell  and  some  of  his  principal  associates.  Daniel 
O'Connell  himself,  his  son  John,  the  late  Sir  John  Gray, 
and  Sir  Charles  Gavan  Duffy,  were  the  most  conspicuous 
of  those  against  whom  the  prosecution  was  directed.  They 
were  charged  with  conspiring  to  raise  and  excite  disaffec- 
tion among  her  Majesty's  subjects,  to  excite  them  to  hatred 
and  contempt  of  the  Government  and  Constitution  of  the 
realm.  The  trial  was,  in  many  ways,  a  singularly  unfor- 
tunate proceeding.  The  Government  prosecutor  objected 
to  all  the  Catholics  whose  names  were  called  as  jurors. 
An  error  of  the  sheriff's  in  the  construction  of  the  jury- 
lists  had  already  reduced  by  a  considerable  number  the  roll 
of  Catholics  entitled  to  serve  on  juries.  It  therefore  hap- 
pened that  the  greatest  of  Irish  Catholics,  the  representa- 
tive Catholic  of  his  day,  the  principal  agent  in  the  work 
of  carrying  Catholic  Emancipation,  was  tried  by  a  jury 
composed  exclusively  of  Protestants.  It  has  only  to  be 
added  that  this  was  done  in  the  metropolis  of  a  country 
essentially  Catholic ;  a  country  five-sixths  of  whose  people 
were  Catholics;  and  on  a  question  affecting  indirectly,  if 
not  directly,  the  whole  position  and  claims  of  Catholics. 
The  trial  was  long.  O'Connell  defended  himself;  and  his 
speech  was  universally  regarded  as  wanting  the  power 


228' 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


IS ' 


■:i '  >';  ■;;  '  ! 


r-  J 


that  had  made  his  defence  of  others  so  effective  in  former 
days.  It  was  for  the  most  part  a  sober  and  somewhat 
heavy  argument  to  prove  that  Ireland  had  lost  instead  of 
gained  by  her  union  with  England.  The  jury  found 
O'Connell  guilty,  along  with  most  of  his  associates,  and 
he  was  sentenced  to  twelve  months'  imprisonment  and  a 
fine  of  jQiooo.  The  others  received  lighter  sentences. 
O'Connell  appealed  to  the  House  of  Lords  against  the 
sentence.  In  the  mean  time  he  issued  a  proclamation  to 
the  Irish  people  commanding  them  to  keep  perfectly  quiet 
and  not  to  commit  any  offence  against  the  law.  "  Every 
man,"  said  one  of  his  proclamations,  "  who  is  guilty  of  the 
slightest  breach  of  the  peace  is  an  enemy  of  me  and  of 
Ireland."  The  Irish  people  took  him  at  his  word,  and  re- 
mained perfectly  quiet. 

O'Connell  and  his  principal  associates  were  committed 
to  Richmond  Prison,  in  Dublin.  The  trial  had  been  de- 
layed in  various  ways,  and  the  sentence  was  not  pronounced 
until  May  24th,  1844.  The  appeal  to  the  House  of  Lords 
— we  may  pass  over  intermediate  stages  of  procedure — 
was  heard  in  the  following  September.  Five  law  lords 
were  present.  The  Lord  Chancellor  (Lord  Lyndhurst) 
and  Lord  Brougham  were  of  opinion  that  the  sentence  of 
the  court  below  should  be  affirmed.  Lord  Denman,  Lord 
Cottenham,  and  Lord  Campbell  were  of  the  opposite  opin- 
ion. Lord  Denman,  in  particular,  condemned  the  man- 
ner  in  which  the  jury-lists  had  been  prepared.  Some  of 
his  words  on  the  occasion  became  memorable,  and  passed 
into  a  sort  of  proverbial  expression.  Such  practices,  he 
said,  would  make  of  the  law  "  a  mockery,  a  delusion,  and 
a  anare. "  A  strange  and  memorable  scene  followed.  The 
constitution  of  the  House  of  Lords  then,  and  for  a  long 
time  after,  made  no  difference  between  law  lords  and 
others  in  voting  on  a  question  of  appeal.  As  a  matter  of 
practice  and  of  fairness  the  lay  peers  hardly  ever  interfered 
in  the  voting  on  an  appeal.  But  they  had  an  undoubted 
right  to  do  so;  and  it  is  even  certain  that  in  one  or  two 


The  Repeal  Year. 


229 


and 
ter  of 
rfered 
ubted 
>r  two 


peculiar  cases  they  had  exercised  the  right.  If  the  lay 
lords  were  to  vote  in  this  instance,  the  fate  of  O'Connell 
and  his  companions  could  not  be  doubtful.  O'Connell  had 
always  been  the  bitter  enemy  of  the  House  of  Lords.  He 
had  vehemently  denounced  its  authority,  its  practices,  and 
its  leading  members.  Nor,  if  the  lay  peers  had  voted  and 
confirmed  the  judgment  of  the  court  below,  could  it  have 
been  positively  said  that  an  injustice  was  done  by  their 
interference.  The  majority  cf  the  judges  on  the  writ  of 
error  had  approved  the  judgment  of  the  court  below.  In 
the  House  of  Lords  itself  the  Lord  Chancellor  and  Lord 
Brougham  were  of  opinion  that  the  judgment  ought  to  be 
sustained.  There  would,  therefore,  have  been  some  ground 
for  maintaining  that  the  substantial  justice  of  the  case  had 
been  met  by  the  action  of  the  lay  peers.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  would  have  afforded  a  ground  for  a  positive  out- 
cry in  Ireland  if  a  question  purely  of  law  had  been  decided 
by  the  votes  of  lay  peers  against  their  bitter  enemy.  One 
peer,  Lord  Whamcliffe,  made  a  timely  appeal  to  the  better 
judgment  and  feeling  of  his  brethren.  He  urged  them 
not  to  take  a  course  which  might  allow  any  one  to  say  that 
political  or  personal  feeling  had  prevailed  in  a  judicial 
decision  of  the  House  of  Lords.  The  appeal  had  its  effect. 
A  moment  before  one  lay  peer  at  least  had  openly  declared 
that  he  would  insist  on  his  right  to  vote.  When  the  Lord 
Chancellor  was  about  to  put  the  question  in  the  first  in- 
stance, to  ascertain  in  the  usual  way  whether  a  division 
would  be  necessary,  several  lay  peers  seen-  ed  as  if  they 
were  determined  to  vote.  But  the  appeal  of  Lord  Wham- 
cliffe settled  the  matter.  All  the  lay  peers  at  once  with- 
drew, and  left  the  matter  according  to  the  usual  course 
in  the  hands  of  the  law  lords.  The  majority  of  these 
being  against  the  judgment  of  the  court  below,  it  was 
accordingly  reversed,  and  O'Connell  and  his  associates 
were  set  at  liberty.  The  propriety  of  a  lay  peer  voting 
on  a  question  of  judicial  appeal  was  never  raised  again 
so  long  as  the  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  House  of 


P.)0 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


W.''\ 


i 


4  ■•! 


;iih 


F   '   I 


Lords  was  still  exercised  in  the  old  and  now  obsolete 
fashion. 

Nothing  could  well  have  been  more  satisfactory  and 
more  fortunate  in  its  results  than  the  conduct  of  the  House 
of  Lords.  The  effect  upon  the  mind  of  the  Irish  people 
would  have  been  deplorable  if  it  had  been  seen  that  O'Con- 
nell  was  convicted  by  a  jury  on  which  there  were  no 
Roman  CathoHcs,  and  that  the  sentence  was  confirmed 
not  by  a  judicial  but  by  a  strictly  political  vote  of  the 
House  of  Lords.  As  it  was,  the  influence  of  the  decision 
which  proved  that  even  in  the  assembly  most  bitterly  de- 
nounced by  O'Connell  he  could  receive  fair  play,  was  in 
the  highest  degree  satisfactory.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that 
it  did  something  to  weaken  the  force  of  O'Connell's  own 
denunciations  of  Saxon  treachery  and  wrong-doing.  The 
influence  of  O'Connell  was  never  the  same  after  the  trial. 
Many  causes  combined  to  bring  about  this  result.  Most 
writers  ascribe  it,  above  all,  to  the  trial  itself,  and  the 
evidence  it  afforded  that  the  English  Government  were 
strong  enough  to  prosecute  and  punish  even  O'Connell  if 
he  provoked  them  too  far.  It  is  somewhat  surprising  to 
find  intelligent  men  like  Mr.  Green,  the  author  of  "  A  Short 
History  of  the  English  People,"  countenancing  such  a  be- 
lief. If  the  House  of  Lords  had,  by  the  votes  of  the  lay 
peers,  confirmed  the  sentence  on  O'Connell,  he  would 
have  come  out  of  his  prison  at  the  expiration  of  his  period 
of  sentence  more  popular  and  more  powerful  than  ever. 
Had  his  strength  and  faculty  of  agitation  lasted,  he  might 
have  agitated  thenceforth  with  more  effect  than  ever.  If 
the  Clontarf  meeting  had  not  disclosed  to  a  large  section 
of  his  followers  that  his  policy,  after  all,  was  only  to  be 
one  of  talk,  he  might  have  come  out  of  prison  just  the  man 
he  had  been,  the  leader  of  all  classes  of  Catholics  and  Na- 
tionalists. But  the  real  blow  given  to  O'Connell's  popu- 
larity was  given  by  O'Connell  himself.  The  moment  it 
was  made  clear  that  nothing  was  to  be  done  but  agitate, 
and  that  all  the  monster  meetings,  the  crowds  and  banners 


I  'f.{i: 


The  Repeal  Year, 


2)1 


and  bands  of  music,  the  marshalling  and  marching  and 
reviewing,  meant  nothing  more  than  Father  Mathew's 
temperance  meetings  meant — that  moment  all  the  youth 
of  the  movement  fell  off  from  O'Connell.  The  young 
men  were  very  silly,  as  after-events  proved.  O'Connell 
was  far  more  wise,  and  had  an  infinitely  better  estimate 
of  the  strength  of  England  than  they  had.  But  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  young  men  were  disgusted  with  the  kind  of 
gigantic  sham  which  the  great  agitator  seemed  to  have 
been  conducting  for  so  long  a  time.  It  would  have  been 
impossible  to  keep  up  forever  such  an  excitement  as  that 
which  got  together  the  monster  meetings.  Such  heat  can- 
not be  brought  up  to  the  burning-point  and  kept  there  at 
will.  A  reaction  was  inevitable.  O'Connell  was  getting 
old,  and  had  lived  a  life  of  work  and  wear-and-tear  enough 
to  break  down  even  his  constitution  of  iron.  He  had  kept 
a  great  part  of  his  own  followers  in  heart,  as  he  had  kept 
the  Government  in  alarm,  by  leaving  it  doubtful  whether 
he  would  not,  in  the  end,  make  an  appeal  to  the  reserve  of 
physical  force  which  he  so  often  boasted  of  having  at  his 
back.  When  the  whole  secret  was  out,  he  ceased  to  be  an 
object  of  fear  to  the  one,  and  of  enthusiasm  to  the  other. 
It  was  neither  the  Lord-Lieutenant's  proclamation  nor  the 
prosecution  by  the  Government  that  impaired  the  influence 
of  O'Connell.  It  was  O'Connell's  own  proclamation,  de- 
claring for  submission  to  the  law,  that  dethroned  him. 
From  that  moment  the  political  monarch  had  to  dispute 
with  rebels  for  his  crown ;  and  the  crown  fell  off  in  the 
struggle,  like  that  which  Uhland  tells  of  in  the  pretty 
poem. 

For  the  Clontarf  meeting  had  been  the  climax.  There 
was  all  manner  of  national  rejoicing  when  the  decision  of 
the  House  of  Lords  set  O'Connell  and  his  fellow-prisoners 
free.  There  were  illuminations  and  banquets  and  meet- 
ings and  triumphal  processions,  renewed  declarations  of 
allegiance  to  the  great  leader,  and  renewed  protestations 
on  his  part  that  Repeal  was  coming.     But  his  reign  was 


2)2 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


over.  His  death  may  as  well  be  recorded  here  as  later. 
His  health  broke  down ;  and  the  di«^  vtes  in  which  he  be- 
came engaged  with  the  Young  Irelanders,  dividing  his 
party  into  two  hostile  camps,  were  a  grievous  burden  to 
him.  In  Lord  Beaconsfield's  Life  of  Lord  George  Ben- 
tinck,  a  very  touching  description  is  given  of  the  last 
speech  made  by  O'Connell  in  Parliament.  It  was  on 
April  3d,  1846:  "His  appearance,"  says  Mr.  Disraeli, 
"was  of  great  debility,  and  the  tones  of  his  voice  were 
very  still.  His  words,  indeed,  only  reached  those  who 
were  immediately  around  him,  and  the  ministers  sitting 
on  the  other  side  of  the  green  table,  and  listening  with 
that  interest  and  respectful  attention  which  became  the 
occasion."  O'Connell  spoke  for  nearly  two  hours.  "It 
was  a  strange  and  touching  spectacle  to  those  who  remem- 
bered the  form  of  colossal  energy  and  the  clear  and  thrill- 
ing tones  that  had  once  startled,  disturbed,  and  controlled 
senates.  ...  To  the  House,  generally,  it  was  a  perform- 
ance in  dumb  show:  a  feeble  old  man  muttering  before  a 
table ;  but  respect  for  the  great  Parliamentary  personage 
kept  all  as  orderly  as  if  the  fortunes  of  a  party  hung  upon 
his  rhetoric ;  and  though  not  an  accent  reached  the  gallery, 
means  were  taken  that  next  morning  the  country  should 
not  lose  the  last,  and  not  the  least  interesting,  of  the 
speeches  of  one  who  had  so  long  occupied  and  agitated  the 
mind  of  nations." 

O'Connell  became  seized  with  a  profound  melancholy. 
Only  one  desire  seemed  left  to  him,  the  desire  to  close  his 
stormy  career  in  Rome.  The  Eternal  City  is  the  capital, 
the  shrine,  the  Mecca  of  the  Church  to  which  O'Connell 
was  undoubtedly  devoted  with  all  his  heart.  He  longed 
to  lie  down  in  the  shadow  of  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's  and 
rest  there,  and  there  die.  His  youth  had  been  wild  in 
more  ways  than  one,  and  he  had  long  been  under  the  in- 
fluence of  a  profound  penitence.  He  had  killed  a  man  in 
a  duel,  and  was  through  all  his  after-life  haunted  by  regret 
for  the  deed,  although  it  was  really  forced  on  him,  and  he 


„ 


The  Repeal  Year. 


233 


had  acted  only  as  any  other  man  of  his  time  would  have 
acted  in  such  conditions.  But  now,  in  his  old  and  sinking 
days,  all  the  errors  of  his  youth  and  his  strong  manhood 
came  back  upon  him,  and  he  longed  to  steep  the  painful 
memories  in  the  sacred  influences  of  Rome.  He  hurried 
to  Italy  at  a  time  when  the  prospect  of  the  famine  darken- 
ing down  upon  his  country  cast  an  additional  shadow  across 
his  outward  path.  He  reached  Genoa,  and  he  went  no  far- 
ther. His  strength  wholly  failed  him  there,  and  he  died, 
still  far  from  Rome,  on  Mey  15th,  1847.  The  close  of  his 
career  was  a  mournful  collapse;  it  was  like  the  sudden 
crumbling  in  of  some  stately  and  commanding  tower. 
The  other  day,  it  seemed,  he  filled  a  space  of  almost  un- 
equalled breadth  and  height  in  the  political  landscape;  and 
now  he  is  already  gone.  "  Even  with  a  thought  the  rack 
dislimbs,  and  makes  it  indistinct,  as  water  is  in  water," 


ret 
he 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
peel's  administration. 


',,,-"<!  ,■;■  |. 


&  I'l-  iff 


J)- 


Some  important  steps  in  the  progress  of  what  may  be 
described  as  social  legislation  are  part  of  the  history  of 
Peel's  Government.  The  Act  of  Parliament  which  pro- 
hibited absolutely  the  employment  of  women  and  girls  in 
mines  and  collieries  was  rendered  unavoidable  by  the  fear- 
ful exposures  made  through  the  instrumentality  of  a  com- 
mission appointed  to  inquire  into  the  whole  subject.  This 
commission  was  appointed  on  the  motion  of  the  then  Lord 
Ashley,  since  better  known  as  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  a 
man  who  during  the  whole  of  a  long  career  has  always 
devoted  himself — sometimes  wisely  and  successfully,  some- 
times indiscreetly  and  to  little  purpose,  always  with  dis- 
interested and  benevolent  intention — to  the  task  of  bright- 
ening the  lives  and  lightening  the  burdens  of  the  work- 
ing-classes and  the  poor.  The  commission  found  many 
hideous  evils  arising  from  the  employment  of  women  and 
girls  underground,  and  Lord  Ashley  made  such  effective 
use  of  their  disclosures  that  he  encountered  very  little  op- 
position when  he  came  to  propose  restrictive  legislation. 
In  some  of  the  coal-mines  women  were  literally  employed 
as  beasts  of  burden.  Where  the  seam  of  coal  was  too 
narrow  to  allow  them  to  stand  upright,  they  had  to  crawl 
back  and  forward  on  all-fours  for  fourteen  or  sixteen  hours 
a  day,  dragging  the  trucks  laden  with  coals.  The  trucks 
were  generally  fastened  to  a  chain  which  passed  between 
the  legs  of  the  unfortunate  women,  and  was  then  connected 
with  a  belt  which  was  strapped  round  their  naked  waists. 
Their  only  clothing  often  consisted  of  an  old  pair  of  trou- 
sers made  of.  sacking;  and  they  were  uncovered  from  the 


Peel's  Administration, 


235 


e  op- 
ation. 
Dloyed 
as  too 
crawl 
hours 
rucks 


waist  up — uncovered,  that  is  to  say,  except  for  the  grime 
and  filth  that  collected  and  clotted  around  them.  All 
manner  of  hideous  diseases  were  generated  in  these  un- 
sexed  bodies.  Unsexed  almost  literally  some  of  them  be- 
came ;  for  their  chests  were  often  hard  and  flat  as  those  of 
men ;  and  not  a  few  of  them  lost  all  reproductive  power — 
a  happy  condition,  truly,  under  the  circumstances,  where 
women  who  bore  children  only  went  up  to  the  higher  air 
for  a  week  during  their  confinement,  and  were  then  back 
at  their  work  again.  It  would  be  superfluous  to  say  that 
the  immorality  engendered  by  such  a  state  of  things  was 
in  exact  keeping  with  the  other  evils  which  it  brought 
about.  Lord  Ashley  had  the  happiness  and  the  honor  of 
putting  a  stop  to  this  infamous  sort  of  labor  forever  by  the 
Act  of  1842,  which  declared  that,  after  a  certain  limited 
period,  no  woman  or  girl  whatever  should  be  employed  in 
mines  and  collieries. 

Lord  Ashley  was  less  completely  successful  in  his  en- 
deavor to  secure  a  ten  hours'  limitation  for  the  daily  labor 
of  women  and  young  persons  in  factories.  By  a  vigorous 
annual  agitation  on  the  general  subject  of  factory  labor, 
in  which  Lord  Ashley  had  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  Mr. 
Michael  Thomas  Sadler,  he  brought  the  Government  up 
to  the  point  of  undertaking  legislation  on  the  subject. 
They  first  introduced  a  bill  which  combined  a  limitation 
of  the  labor  of  children  in  factories  with  a  plan  for  com- 
pulsory education  among  the  children.  The  educational 
clauses  of  the  bill  had  to  be  abandoned  in  consequence  of 
a  somewhat  narrow-minded  opposition  among  the  Dissent- 
ers, who  feared  that  too  much  advantage  was  given  to  the 
Church.  Afterward  the  Government  brought  in  another 
bill,  which  became,  in  the  end,  the  Factories  Act  of  1844. 
It  was  during  the  passing  of  this  measure  that  Lord  Ashley 
tried  unsuccessfully  to  introduce  his  ten  hours'  limit.  The 
bill  diminished  the  working  hours  of  children  under  thir- 
teen years  of  age,  and  fixed  them  at  six  and  a  half  hours 
each  day ;  extended  somewhat  the  time  during  which  they 


2^6 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


m 


\^-fy\\ 


,i « 


X: 


:i>; 


were  to  be  under  daily  instruction,  and  did  a  good  many 
other  useful  and  wholesome  things.  The  principle  of  legis- 
lative interference  to  protect  youthful  workers  m  factories 
had  been  already  established  by  the  Act  of  1833,  and  Lord 
Ashley's  agitation  only  obtained  for  it  a  somewhat  ex- 
tended application.  It  has  since  that  time  again  and  again 
received  trthr  extension;  and  in  this  time,  as  in  the 
former,  tJ-  .  re  i&  a  constant  controversy  going  on  as  to 
whether  itb05-''es  ought  not  to  be  so  extended  as  to 
guard  in  aim.;  i.  eve  "vay  the  labor  of  adult  women,  and 
even  of  adult  men.  Tho  controversy  during  Lord  Ashley's 
agitation  was  always  warm  and  often  impassioned.  Many 
thoroughly  benevolent  men  and  women  could  not  bring 
themselves  to  believe  that  any  satisfactory  and  permanent 
results  could  come  of  a  legislative  interference  with  what 
might  be  called  the  freedom  of  contract  between  employers 
and  employed.  They  argued  that  it  was  idle  to  say  the 
interference  was  only  made  or  sought  in  the  case  of  women 
and  boys ;  for  if  the  women  and  boys  stop  oflE  working, 
they  pointed  out,  the  men  must  perforce  in  most  cases  stop 
off  working  too.  Some  of  the  public  men  afterward  most 
justly  popular  among  the  English  artisan  classes  were  op- 
posed to  the  measure  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  heedless 
attempt  to  interfere  with  fixed  economic  laws.  It  was 
urged,  too,  and  with  much  semblance  of  justice,  that  the 
interference  of  the  State  for  the  protection  or  the  compul- 
sory education  of  children  in  factories  would  have  been 
much  better  employed,  and  was  far  more  loudly  called  for, 
in  the  case  of  the  children  employed  in  agricultural  labor. 
The  lot  of  a  factory  child,  it  was  contended,  is  infinitely 
better  in  most  respects  than  that  of  the  poor  little  creature 
who  is  employed  in  hallooing  at  the  crows  on  a  farm.  The 
mill-hand  is  well  cared  for,  well  paid,  well  able  to  care 
for  himself  and  his  wife  and  his  family,  it  was  argued ;  but 
what  of  the  miserable  Giles  Scroggins  of  Dorsetshire  or 
Somersetshire,  who  never  has  more  in  all  his  life  than  just 
enough  to  keep  body  and  soul  together;  and  for  whom,  at 


[:;ii:'.  ft 


Peel's  Administration. 


237 


3d  many 
5  of  legis- 
factories 
md  Lord 
vhat  ex- 
nd  again 
s  in  the 
m  as  to 
3d  as  to 
len,  and 
Ashley's 

Many 

)t  bring 

*manent 

th  what 

iployers 

say  the 

women 

'orking, 

ses  stop 

rd  most 

'ere  op- 

eedless 

It  was 

hat  the 

ompul- 

been 

ed  for, 

labor. 

initely 

eature 

The 
o  care 
3;  but 
ire  or 
n  just 
om,at 


the  close,  the  workhouse  is  the  only  haven  of  rest?  Why 
not  legislate  for  him — at  least  for  his  wife  and  children? 

Neither  po-'nt  requires  much  consideration  from  us  at 
present.  We  have  to  recognize  historical  facts ;  and  it  is 
certain  that  this  country  has  made  up  its  mind  that  for  the 
present  and  for  a  long  time  to  come  Parliament  will  inter- 
fere in  whatever  way  seems  good  to  it  with  the  conditions 
on  which  labor  is  carried  on.  There  has  been,  indeed,  a 
very  marked  advance  or  retrogression,  whichever  men  may 
please  to  call  it,  in  public  opinion  since  the  ten  hours' 
agitation.  At  that  time  compulsory  education  at.  ^  e  prin- 
ciples of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Irish  Land  Act  wouM  har  eemed 
alike  impossible  to  most  persons  in  this  c  ntiy.  The 
practical  mind  of  the  Englishman  carrie:  v^..  ^  i  extreme 
the  dislike  and  contempt  for  what  the  French  all  les prin- 
ciples in  politics.  Therefore  we  oscillate  ryc^d  deal,  the 
pendulum  swinging  now  very  far  in  the  erection  of  non- 
interference with  individual  action,  p. id  now  still  farther 
in  the  direction  of  universal  interference  and  regulation — 
what  was  once  humorously  described  as  grandmotherly 
legislation.  With  our  recent  experiences  we  can  only  be 
surprised  that  a  few  years  ago  there  was  such  a  repugnance 
to  the  modest  amount  of  interference  with  individual  rights 
which  Lord  Ashley's  extremest  proposals  would  have 
sought  to  introduce.  As  regards  the  other  point,  it  is 
certain  that  Parliament  will  at  one  time  or  another  do  for 
the  children  in  the  fields  something  very  like  that  which 
it  has  done  for  the  children  in  the  factories.  It  is  enough 
for  us  to  know  that  practically  the  factory  legislation  has 
worked  very  well;  and  that  the  non-interference  in  the 
fields  is  a  far  heavier  responsibility  on  the  conscience  of 
Parliament  than  interference  in  the  factories. 

Many  other  things  done  by  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Govern- 
ment aroused  bitter  controversy  and  agitation.  In  one  or 
two  remarkable  instances  the  ministerial  policy  went  near 
to  producing  that  discord  in  the  Conservative  party  which 
we  shall  presently  see  break  out  into  passion  and  schism 


2^S 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


when  Peel  came  to  deal  with  the  Corn-laws.  There  was, 
for  example,  the  grant  to  the  Roman  Catholic  College  of 
Maynooth,  a  college  for  the  education  specially  of  young 
men  who  sought  to  enter  the  ranks  of  the  priesthood.  The 
grant  was  not  a  new  thing.  Since  before  the  Act  of  Union 
a  grant  had  been  made  for  the  college.  The  Government 
or  Sir  Robert  Peel  only  proposed  to  make  that  which  was 
insufficient  sufficient ;  to  enable  the  college  to  be  kept  in 
repair,  and  to  accomplish  the  purpose  for  which  it  was 
founded.  As  Macaulay  put  it,  there  was  no  more  ques- 
tion of  principle  involved  than  there  would  be  in  the  sac- 
rifice of  a  pound  instead  of  a  pennyweight  on  some  particu- 
lar altar.  Yet  the  ministerial  proposition  called  up  a  very 
tempest  of  clamorous  bigotry  all  over  the  country.  What 
Macaulay  described  in  fierce  scorn  as  "  the  bray  of  Exeter 
Hall"  was  heard  resounding  every  day  and  night.  Peel 
carried  his  measure,  although  nearly  half  his  own  party  in 
the  House  of  Commons  voted  against  it  on  the  second 
reading.  The  whole  controversy  has  little  interest  now. 
Perhaps  it  will  be  found  to  live  in  the  memory  of  many 
persons,  chiefly  because  of  the  quarrel  it  caused  between 
Macaulay  and  his  Edinburgh  constituents,  and  of  the  an- 
nual motion  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  g^ant  which  was  so 
long  afterward  one  of  the  regular  bores  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  Many  of  us  can  well  remember  the  venerable 
form  of  the  late  Mr.  Spooner  as  year  after  year  he  ad- 
dressed an  apathetic,  scanty,  and  half-amused  audience, 
pottering  over  his  papers  by  the  light  of  two  candles  spe- 
cially placed  for  his  convenience  on  the  table  in  front  of  the 
Speaker,  and  endeavoring  in  vain  to  arouse  England  to 
serious  attention  on  the  subject  of  the  awful  fate  she  was 
preparing  for  herself  by  her  toleration  of  the  principles  of 
Rome.  The  Maynooth  grant  was  abolished,  indeed,  not 
long  after  Mr.  Spooner's  death;  but  the  manner  of  its 
abolition  would  have  given  him  less  comfort  even  than  its 
introduction.  It  was  abolished  when  Mr.  Gladstone's 
Government  abolished  the  State  Church  in  Ireland. 


Peel's  AdministraUon. 


339 


Another  of  Peel's  measures  which  aroused  much  clamor 
on  both  sides  was  that  for  the  establishment  of  what  were 
afterward  called  the  "  godless  colleges"  in  Ireland.  O'Con- 
nell  has  often  had  the  credit  of  applying  this  nickname  to 
the  new  colleges ;  but  it  was,  in  fact,  from  the  extremest 
of  all  no-popery  men,  Sir  Robert  Harry  Inglis,  that  the 
expression  came.  It  was,  indeed,  from  Sir  Robert  Inglis' 
side  that  the  first  note  sounded  of  opposition  to  the  scheme, 
although  O'Connell  afterward  took  it  vigorously  up,  and 
the  Pope  and  the  Irish  bishops  condemned  the  colleges. 

There  was  objection  within  the  ministry,  as  well  as 
without.  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  had  been  doing  admirable 
work,  first  as  Vice-president,  and  afterward  as  President, 
of  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  who  had  supported  the  Queen's 
colleges  scheme  by  voice  and  vote,  resigned  his  office  be- 
cause of  the  Maynooth  grant.  He  acted,  perhaps,  with  a 
too  sensitive  chivalry.  He  had  written  a  work,  as  all  the 
world  knows,  on  the  relation  of  Church  and  State,  and  he 
did  not  think  the  views  expressed  in  that  book  left  him  free 
to  co-operate  with  the  ministerial  measure.  Some  staid 
politicians  were  shocked ;  many  more  smiled ;  not  a  few 
sneered.  The  public  in  general  applauded  the  spirit  of 
disinterestedness  which  dictated  the  young  statesman's  act. 

The  proposal  of  the  Government  was  to  establish  in  Ire- 
land three  colleges — one  in  Cork,  the  second  in  Belfast,  and 
the  third  in  Galway — and  to  affiliate  these  to  a  new  uni- 
versity, to  be  called  the  "Queen's  University  in  Ireland." 
The  teaching  in  these  colleges  was  to  be  purely  secular. 
Nothing  could  be  more  admirable  than  the  intentions  of 
Peel  and  his  colleagues.  Nor  could  it  be  denied  that  there 
might  have  been  good  seeming  hope  for  a  plan  which  thus 
proposed  to  open  a  sort  of  neutral  ground  in  the  educational 
controversy.  But  from  both  sides  of  the  House  and  from 
the  extreme  party  in  each  Church  came  an  equally  fierce 
denunciation  of  the  proposal  to  separate  secular  from 
religious  education.  Nor,  surely,  could  the  claim  of  the 
Irish  Catholics  be  said  even  by  the  warmest  advocate  of 


2^0 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


V'; 


M       ' 


m   , 

•..It.;      [ 

1  1 


undenominational  education  to  have  no  reason  on  its  side. 
Tiie  small  minority  of  Protestants  in  Ireland  had  their  col- 
lege and  their  university  established  as  a  distinctively 
Protestant  institution.  Why  should  not  the  great  majority, 
who  were  Catholics,  ask  for  something  of  the  same  kind  for 
themselves?  Peel  carried  his  measure ;  but  the  controversy 
has  gone  on  ever  since,  and  we  have  yet  to  see  whether 
the  scheme  is  a  success  or  a  failure. 

One  small  instalment  of  justice  to  a  much-injured  and 
long-suffering  religious  body  was  accomplished  without 
any  trouble  by  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Government.  This  was 
the  bill  for  removing  the  test  by  which  Jews  were  excluded 
from  certain  municipal  offices.  A  Jew  might  be  high- 
sheriff  of  a  county,  or  sheriff  of  London,  but  with  an  in- 
consistency which  was  as  ridiculous  as  it  was  narrow- 
minded,  he  was  prevented  from  becoming  a  mayor,  an 
alderman,  or  even  a  member  of  the  Common  Council. 
The  oath  which  had  to  be  taken  included  the  words  "  on 
the  true  faith  of  a  Christian."  Lord  Lyndhurst,  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  introduced  a  measure  to  get  rid  of  this  absurd 
anomaly ;  and  the  House  of  Lords,  who  had  firmly  rejected 
similar  proposals  of  relief  before,  passed  it  without  any  dif- 
ficulty. It  was,  of  course,  passed  by  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, which  had  done  its  best  to  introduce  the  reform  in 
previous  sessions,  and  without  success. 

The  Bank  Charter  Act,  separating  the  issue  from  the 
banking  department  of  the  Bank  of  England,  limiting  the 
issue  of  notes  to  a  fixed  amount  of  securities,  and  requiring 
the  whole  of  the  further  circulation  to  be  on  a  basis  of 
bullion,  and  prohibiting  the  formation  of  any  new  banks  of 
issue,  is  a  characteristic  and  an  important  measure  of 
Peel's  Government.  To  Peel,  too,  we  owe  the  establish- 
ment of  the  income-tax  on  its  -oresent  basis — a  doubtful 
boon.  The  copyright  question  was,  at  least,  advanced  a 
stage.  Railways  were  regulated.  The  railway  mania 
and  railway  panic  also  belong  to  this  active  period.  The 
country  went  wild  with  railway  speculations.     The  South 


Peel's  Administration. 


241 


the 

fg  the 

liring 

iis  of 

iksof 

Ire  of 

>lish- 

ibtful 

:ed  a 

lania 

The 

fouth 


Sea  scheme  was  hardly  more  of  a  bubble,  or  hardly  burst 
more  suddenly  or  disastrously.  The  vulgar  and  flashy 
successes  of  one  or  two  lucky  adventurers  turned  the  heads 
of  the  whole  community.  For  a  time  it  seemed  to  be  a 
national  article  of  faith  that  the  capacity  of  the  country  to 
absorb  nev;  railway  schemes  and  make  them  profitable  was 
unlimited,  and  that  to  make  a  fortune  one  had  only  to  take 
shares  in  anything. 

An  odd  feature  of  the  time  was  the  outbreak  of  what 
were  called  the  Rebe^  a  riots  in  Wales.  These  riots  arose 
out  of  the  anger  and  impatience  of  the  people  at  the  j^reat 
increase  of  toll-bars  and  tolls  on  the  public  roads.  Son. 
one,  it  was  supposed,  had  hit  upon  a  passage  in  Genesis 
which  supplies  a  motto  for  their  grievance  and  their  com- 
plaint. "  And  they  blessed  Rebekah,  and  said  unto  her 
...  let  thy  seed  possess  the  gate  of  those  which  hate 
them."  They  set  about,  accordingly,  to  possess  very 
effectually  the  gates  of  those  which  hated  them.  Mobs 
assembled  every  night,  destroyed  turnpikes,  and  dispersed. 
They  met  with  little  molestation  in  most  cases  for  awhile. 
The  mobs  were  always  led  by  a  man  in  woman's  clothes, 
supposed  to  represent  the  typical  Rebecca.  As  the  dis- 
turbances went  on,  it  was  found  that  no  easier  mode  of 
disguise  could  be  got  than  a  woman's  clothes,  and,  there- 
fore, in  many  of  the  riots  petticoats  might  almost  be  said 
to  be  the  uniform  of  the  insurgent  force.  Night  after 
night  for  months  these  midnight  musterings  took  place. 
Rebecca  and  her  daughters  became  the  terror  of  many 
regions.  As  the  work  went  on  it  became  more  serious. 
Rebecca  and  her  daughters  grew  bold.  There  were  con- 
flicts V.  ith  the  police  and  with  the  soldiers.  It  is  to  be 
feared  that  men  and  even  women  died  for  Rebecca.  At 
last  the  Government  succeeded  in  putting  down  the  riots, 
and  had  the  wisdom  to  appoint  a  commission  to  inquire 
into  the  cause  of  so  much  disturbance ;  and  the  commis- 
sion, as  will  readily  be  imagined,  found  that  th"?ie  were 
genuine  grievances  at  the  bottom  of  the  popular  excite 
Vol.  I.— 16 


1t:5 


343 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


^1i*r'  '    i 


-!    t 


ment.  The  farmers  and  the  laborers  were  poor ;  the  tolls 
were  seriously  oppressive.  The  Government  dealt  lightly 
with  most  of  the  rioters  who  had  been  captured,  and  in- 
troduced measures  which  removed  the  grievances  most 
seriously  complained  of.  Rebecca  and  her  daughters  were 
heard  of  no  more.  They  had  made  out  their  case,  and 
done  in  their  wild  mumming  way  something  of  a  good 
work.  Only  a  short  time  before  the  rioters  would  have 
been  shot  down,  and  the  grievances  would  have  been  al- 
lowed  to  stand.  Rebecca  and  her  short  career  mark  an 
advancement  in  the  political  and  social  history  of  Eng- 
land. 

Sir  James  Graham,  the  Home-secretary,  brought  him- 
self and  the  Government  into  some  trouble  by  the  manner 
in  which  he  made  use  of  the  power  invested  in  the  Admin- 
istration for  the  opening  of  private  letters.  Mr.  Dun- 
combe,  the  Radical  member  for  Finsbury,  presented  a 
petition  from  Joseph  Mazzini  and  others  complaining  that 
letters  addressed  to  them  had  been  opened  in  the  Post- 
office.  Many  of  Mazzini 's  friends,  and  perhaps  Mazzini 
himself,  believed  that  the  contents  of  these  letters  had 
been  communicated  to  the  Sardinian  and  Austrian  Gov- 
ernments, and  that,  as  a  result,  men  who  were  supposed 
to  be  implicated  in  projects  of  insurrection  on  the  Con- 
tinent had  actually  been  arrested  and  put  to  death.  Sir 
James  Graham  did  not  deny  that  he  had  issued  a  warrant 
authorizing  the  opening  of  some  of  Mazzini 's  letters;  but 
he  contended  that  the  right  to  open  letters  had  been  vSpe- 
cially  reserved  to  the  Government  on  its  responsibility,  that 
it  had  been  always  exercised,  but  by  him  with  special  cau- 
tion and  moderation ;  and  that  it  would  be  impossible  for 
any  Government  absolutely  to  deprive  itself  of  such  a 
right.  The  public  excitement  was  at  first  very  great;  but 
it  soon  subsided.  The  reports  of  Parliamentary  commit- 
tees appointed  by  the  two  Houses  showed  that  all  Govern- 
ments had  exercised  the  right,  but  naturally  with  decreas- 
ing frequency  and  greater  caution  of  late  years ;  and  that 


the  tolls 
:  lightly 
and  in- 
es  most 
ers  were 
ase,  and 
a  good 
Id  have 
Deen  al- 
nark  an 
of  Eng- 

ht  him- 
manner 
Admin- 
r.   D  un- 
dented a 
ing  that 
le  Post- 
Mazzini 
ters  had 
m  Gov- 
upposed 
he  Con- 
h.     Sir 
arrant 
rs;  but 
en  spe- 
ty,  that 
ial  cau- 
ible  for 
such  a 
at;  but 
lommit- 
rovern- 
lecreas- 
id  that 


Peel's  Administration. 


243 


there  was  no  chance  now  of  its  being  seriously  abused.  No 
one,  not  even  Thomas  Carlyle,  who  had  written  to  the 
Times  in  generous  indignation  at  the  opening  of  Mazzini's 
letters,  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  such  a  right  should  never 
be  exercised.  Carlyle  admitted  that  he  would  tolerate  the 
practice  "  when  some  new  Gunpowder  Plot  may  be  in  the 
wind,  some  double-dyed  high-treason  or  imminent  national 
wreck  not  avoidable  otherwise. "  In  the  particular  case  of 
Mazzini  it  seemed  an  odious  trick,  and  every  one  was 
ashamed  of  it.  Such  a  feeling  was  the  surest  guard 
against  abuse  for  the  future,  and  the  matter  was  allowed 
to  drop.  The  minister  is  to  be  pitied  who  is  compelled 
even  by  legitimate  necessity  to  have  recourse  to  such  an 
expedient;  he  would  be  despised  now  by  every  decent 
man  if  he  turned  to  it  without  such  justification.  Many 
years  had  to  pass  away  before  Sir  James  Graham  was  free 
from  innuendoes  and  attacks  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
tampered  with  the  correspondence  of  an  exile.  One  re- 
mark, on  the  other  hand,  it  is  right  to  make.  An  exile  is 
sheltered  in  a  country  like  England  on  the  assumption 
that  he  does  not  involve  her  in  responsibility  and  danger 
by  using  her  protection  as  a  shield  behind  which  to  con- 
trive plots  and  organize  insurrections  against  foreign  Gov- 
ernments. It  is  certain  that  Mazzini  did  make  use  of  the 
shelter  England  gave  him  for  such  a  purpose.  It  would  in 
the  end  be  to  the  heavy  injury  of  all  fugitives  from  des- 
potic rule  if  to  shelter  them  brought  such  consequences  on 
the  countries  that  offered  them  a  home. 

The  Peel  Administration  was  made  memorable  by  many 
remarkable  events  at  home  as  well  as  abroad.  It  had,  as 
we  have  seen,  inherited  wars  and  brought  them  to  a  close ; 
it  had  wars  of  its  own.  Scinde  was  annexed  by  Lord 
Ellenborough  in  consequence  of  the  disputes  which  had 
arisen  between  us  and  the  Ameers,  whom  we  accused  of 
having  broken  faith  with  us.  They  were  said  to  be  in 
correspondence  with  our  enemies,  which  may  possibly 
have  been  true,  and  to  have  failed  to  pay  up  our  tribute, 


244 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


I     1 


Vi': 


which  was  very  likely.  Anyhow  we  found  occasion  for 
an  at  ack  on  Scinde ;  and  the  result  was  the  total  defeat  of 
the  Princes  and  their  army,  and  the  annexation  of  the 
territory.  Sir  Charles  Napier  won  a  splendid  victory — 
splendid,  that  is,  in  a  military  sense — over  an  enemy  out- 
numbering him  by  more  than  twelve  to  one  at  the  battle 
of  Meeanee;  and  Scinde  was  ours.  Peel  and  his  col- 
leagues accepted  the  annexation.  None  of  them  liked 
it;  but  none  saw  how  it  could  be  undone.  There  was 
nothing  to  be  proud  of  in  the  matter,  except  the  courage 
of  our  soldiers,  and  the  genius  of  Sir  Charles  Napier,  one 
of  the  most  brilliant,  daring,  successful,  eccentric,  and  self- 
conceited  captains  who  had  ever  fought  in  the  service  of 
England  since  the  days  of  Peterborough.  Later  on,  the 
Sikhs  invaded  our  territory  by  crossing  the  Sutlej  in  great 
force.  Sir  Hugh  Gough,  afterward  Lord  Gough,  fought 
several  fierce  battles  with  them  before  he  could  conquer 
them ;  and  even  then  they  were  only  conquered  for  the 
time. 

We  were  at  one  moment  apparently  on  the  very  verge 
of  what  must  have  proved  a  far  more  serious  war  much 
nearer  home,  in  consequence  of  the  dispute  that  arose 
between  this  country  and  France  about  Tahiti  and  Queen 
Pomare.  Queen  Pomare  was  sovereign  of  the  island  of 
Tahiti,  in  the  South  Pacific,  the  Otaheite  of  Captain  Cook. 
She  was  a  pupil  of  some  of  our  missionaries,  and  was  very 
friendly  to  England  and  its  people.  She  had  been  in- 
duced or  compelled  to  put  herself  and  her  dominion  under 
the  protection  of  France ;  a  step  which  was  highly  displeas- 
ing to  her  subjects.  Some  ill-feeling  toward  the  French 
residents  of  the  island  was  shown ;  and  the  French  admiral, 
who  had  induced  or  compelled  the  Queen  to  put  herself 
under  French  protection,  now  suddenly  appeared  off  the 
coast,  and  called  on  her  to  hoist  the  French  flag  above  her 
own.  She  refused ;  and  he  instantly  effected  a  landing  on 
the  island,  pulled  down  her  flag,  raised  that  of  France  in 
its  place,  and  proclaimed  that  the  island  was  French  ter- 


i 


1:  ;.'■ 


Peel's  Administration. 


245 


ritory.  The  French  admiral  appears  to  have  been  a  hot- 
headed, thoughtless  sort  of  man,  the  Commodore  Wilkes 
of  his  day.  His  act  was  at  once  disavowed  by  the  French 
Government,  and  condemned  in  strong  terms  by  M. 
Guizot.  But  Queen  Pomare  had  appealed  to  the  Queen 
of  England  for  assistance.  "Do  not  cast  me  away,  my 
friend,"  she  said;  "  I  run  to  you  for  refuge,  to  be  covered 
under  your  great  shadow,  the  same  that  afforded  relief  to 
my  fathers  by  your  fathers,  who  are  now  dead,  and  whose 
kingdoms  have  descended  to  us,  the  weaker  vessels."  A 
large  party  in  France  allowed  themselves  to  become  in- 
flamed with  the  idea  that  British  intrigue  was  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  Tahiti  people's  dislike  to  the  protectorate  of 
France,  and  that  England  wanted  to  get  Queen  Pomare's 
dominions  for  herself.  They  cried  out,  therefore,  that  to 
take  down  the  flag  of  France  from  its  place  in  Tahiti 
would  be  to  insult  the  dignity  of  the  French  nation,  and 
to  insult  it  at  the  instance  of  England.  The  cry  was 
echoed  in  the  shrillest  tones  by  a  great  number  of  French 
newspapers.  Where  the  flag  of  France  has  once  been 
hoisted,  they  screamed,  it  must  never  be  taken  do.vn; 
which  is  about  equivalent  to  saying  that  if  a  man's  offi- 
cious servant  carries  off  the  property  of  some  one  else,  and 
gives  it  to  his  master,  the  master's  dignity  is  lowered  by 
his  consenting  to  hand  it  back  to  its  owner.  In  the  face 
of  this  clamor  the  French  Government,  although  they  dis- 
avowed any  share  in  the  filibustering  of  their  admiral,  did 
not  show  themselves  in  great  haste  to  undo  what  he  had 
done.  Possibly  they  found  themselves  in  something  of 
the  same  difficulty  as  the  English  Government  in  regard 
to  the  annexation  of  Scinde.  They  could  not,  perhaps, 
with  great  safety  to  themselves  have  ventured  to  be  hon- 
est all  at  once;  and  in  any  case  they  did  not  want  to  give 
up  the  protectorate  of  Tahiti.  While  the  more  hot-headed 
on  both  sides  of  the  English  Channel  were  thus  snarling 
at  each  other,  the  difficulty  was  immensely  complicated 
by  the  seizure  of  a  missionary  named  Pritchard,  who  had 


m  n 


>i.:V  ■  ij  ,     I 


J  !'' 


y'  V. 


\'i 


.|t|  '; 


:x 


M    i: 


fr   ,), 


246 


j4  History  of  Our  Own  Titles. 


been  our  consul  in  the  island  up  to  the  deposition  of 
Pomare.  A  French  sentinel  had  been  attacked,  or  was 
said  to  have  been  attacked,  in  the  night,  and  in  conse- 
quence the  French  commandant  seized  Pritchard  in 
reprisal,  declaring  him  to  be  **  the  only  mover  and  instiga- 
tor of  disturbances  among  the  natives."  Pritchard  was 
flung  into  prison,  and  only  released  to  be  expelled  from 
the  island.  He  came  home  to  England  with  his  story ; 
and  his  arrival  was  the  signal  for  an  outburst  of  indigna- 
tion all  over  the  country.  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  Lord  Aber- 
deen alike  stigmatized  the  treatment  of  Pritchard  as  a 
gross  and  intolerable  outrage;  and  satisfaction  was  de- 
manded of  the  French  Government.  The  King  and  M. 
Guizot  were  both  willing  that  full  justice  should  be  done, 
and  both  anxious  to  avoid  any  occasion  of  ill-feeling  v,  \  ,h 
England.  The  King  had  lately  been  receiving,  with 
effusive  show  of  affection,  a  visit  from  our  Qu^en  in 
France,  and  was  about  to  return  it.  But  so  hot  was  popu- 
lar passion  on  both  sides  that  it  would  have  icoled 
stronger  and  juster  natures  than  those  of  the  Kfng  a\  his 
minister  to  venture  at  once  on  doing  therigh  .  tning.  It 
was  on  the  last  day  of  the  session  of  1844,  September  5th, 
that  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  able  t':-  aunoimce  that  the  French 
Government  had  agreed  to  coinperr'ate  Pritchard  for  his 
sufferings  and  losses.  Quetxi  i  omare  was  nominally  re- 
stored to  power,  but  the  French  protection  proved  as 
stringent  as  if  it  were  a  sovereign  rule.  She  might  as 
well  have  pulled  down  her  flag  for  all  the  sovereign  right 
it  secured  to  her.  She  died  thirty-four  years  after,  and 
her  death  recalled  to  the  memory  of  the  English  public 
the  long-forgotten  fact  that  she  had  once  so  nearly  been 
the  cause  of  a  war  between  England  and  France. 

The  Ashburton  Treaty  and  the  Oregon  Treaty  belong 
alike  to  the  history  of  Peel's  Administration.  The  Ash- 
mrton  Treaty  bears  date  August  9th,  1842,  and  arranges 
finally  the  northwestern  boundary  between  the  British 
Provinces  of  North  ^i-merica  and  the  United  States.     For 


II 


Peel's  Administration. 


247 


many  years  the  want  of  any  clear  and  settled  understand- 
ing as  to  the  boundary  line  between  Canada  and  the  State 
of  Maine  had  been  a  source  of  some  disturbance  and  of  much 
controversy.  Arbitration  between  England  and  the  United 
States  had  been  tried  and  failed,  both  parties  declining 
the  award.  Sir  Robert  Peel  sent  out  Lord  Ashburton, 
formerly  Mr.  Baring,  as  plenipotentiary  to  Washington, 
in  1842,  and  by  his  intelligent  exertions  an  arrangement 
was  come  to  which  appears  to  have  given  mutual  satisfac- 
tion ever  since,  despite  of  the  sinister  prophesyings  of 
Lord  Palmerston  at  the  time.  The  Oregon  question  was 
more  complicated,  and  was  the  source  of  a  longer  con- 
troversy. More  than  once  the  dispute  about  the  boundary 
line  in  the  Oregon  region  had  very  nearly  become  an 
occasion  for  war  between  England  and  the  United  States. 
In  Canning's  time  there  was  a  crisis  during  which,  to 
quote  the  words  of  an  English  statesman,  war  could  have 
been  brought  about  by  the  holding  up  of  a  finger.  The 
question  in  dispute  was  as  to  the  boundary  line  between 
English  and  American  territory  west  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. It  had  seemed  a  matter  of  little  importance  at  one 
time,  when  the  country  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  was 
regarded  by  most  persons  as  little  better  than  a  desert 
idle.  But  when  the  vast  capacities  and  the  splendid  future 
of  the  Pacific  slope  began  to  be  recognized  id  the  im- 
portance to  us  of  some  station  and  harbor  thf  came  to  be 
more  and  more  evident,  the  dispute  naturall  v  swelled  into 
a  question  of  vital  interest  to  both  nation  In  1818  an 
attempt  at  arrangement  was  made,  but  failed.  The  two 
Governments  then  agreed  to  leave  the  di;  iited  regions  to 
joint  occupation  for  ten  years,  after  which  the  subject  was 
to  be  opened  again.  When  the  end  of  the  first  term  came 
near,  Canning  did  his  best  to  bring  about  a  settlement, 
but  failed.  The  dispute  involved  the  ownership  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Columbia  River,  and  of  the  noble  island 
which  bears  the  name  of  Vancouver,  off  *he  shore  of 
British  Columbia.     The  joint  occupancy  wa^  renewed  for 


n 


I 


248 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


;?i?;'»' 


V'i 


an  indefinite  time;  but  in  1843  the  President  of  the  United 
States  somewhat  peremptorily  called  for  a  final  settlement 
of  the  boundary.  The  question  was  eagerly  taken  up  by 
excitable  politicians  in  the  American  House  of  Representa- 
tives. For  more  than  two  years  the  Oregon  question  be- 
came a  party  cry  in  America.  With  a  large  proportion  of 
the  American  public,  including,  of  course,  nearly  all 
citizens  of  Irish  birth  or  extraction,  any  President  would 
have  been  popular  beyond  measure  who  had  forced  a  war 
on  England.  Calmer  and  wiser  counsels  prevailed,  how- 
ever, on  both  sides.  Lord  Aberdeen,  our  Foreigii  Secre- 
tary, was  especially  moderate  and  conciliatory.  He  offered 
a  compromise  which  was  at  last  accepted.  On  June  15th, 
1846,  the  Oregon  Treaty  settled  the  question  for  that  time 
at  least;  the  dividing  line  was  to  be  "the  forty-ninth 
degree  of  latitude,  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  west  to  the 
middle  of  the  channel  separating  Vancouver's  Island 
from  the  mainland ;  thence  southerly  through  the  middle 
of  the  channel  and  of  Fuca's  St?  its  to  the  Pacific."  The 
channel  ?nd  straits  were  to  be  free,  as  also  the  great 
northern  branch  of  the  Columbia  River.  In  other  words, 
Vancouver's  Island  remained  to  Great  Britain,  and  the 
free  navigation  of  the  Columbia  River  was  secured.  We 
have  said  that  the  question  was  settled  "  for  that  time ;" 
because  an  important  part  of  it  came  up  again  for  settle- 
ment many  years  after.  The  commissioners  appointed  to 
determine  that  portion  of  the  boundary  which  was  to  run 
southerly  through  the  middle  of  the  channel  were  unable 
to  come  to  any  agreement  on  the  subject,  and  the  diver- 
gence of  the  claims  made  on  one  side  and  the  other  con- 
stituted a  new  question,  which  became  a  part  of  the 
famous  Treaty  ot  Washington  in  187 1,  and  was  finally 
settled  by  the  arbitration  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany. 
But  it  is  much  to  the  honor  of  the  Peel  Administration 
that  a  dispute  which  had  for  years  been  charged  with 
possibilities  of  war,  and  had  become  a  stock  subject  of 
political  agitation  in  America,  should  have  been  so  far 


Peel's  Administration. 


249 


settled  as  to  be  removed  forever  after  out  of  the  category 
of  disputes  which  suggest  an  appeal  to  arms.  This  was 
one  of  the  last  acts  of  Peel's  Government,  and  it  was  not 
the  least  of  the  great  things  he  had  done.  We  have  soon 
to  tell  how  it  came  about  that  it  was  one  of  his  latest 
triumphs,  and  how  an  Administration  which  had  come 
into  power  with  such  splendid  promise,  and  had  accom- 
plished so  much  in  such  various  fields  of  legislation,  was 
brought  so  suddenly  to  a  fall.  The  story  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  and  important  chapters  in  the  history  of 
English  politics  and  parties. 

During  Peel's  time  we  catch  a  last  glimpse  of  the 
famous  Arctic  navigator.  Sir  John  Franklin.  He  sailed 
on  the  expedition  which  was  doomed  to  be  his  last  on 
May  26th,  1845,  with  his  two  vessels,  Erebus  and  Terror. 
Not  much  more  is  heard  of  him  as  among  the  living.  We 
may  say  of  him,  as  Carlyle  says  of  La  P6rouse,  *'  The  brave 
navigator  goes  and  returns  not ;  the  seekers  search  far  seas 
for  him  in  vain ;  only  some  moumiul,  mysterious  shadow 
of  him  hovers  long  in  all  heads  and  hearts." 


' 


far 


'^■i  !•:,'' 


IM^ 


If  'I  ,  i 


':-J 


;  ( 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

FREE-TRADE   AND   THE   LEAGUE. 

Few  chapters  of  political  history  in  modern  times  have 
given  occasion  for  more  controversy  than  that  which  con- 
tains the  story  of  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Administration  in  its 
dealing  with  the  Corn-laws.  Told  in  the  briefest  form, 
the  story  is  that  Peel  came  into  office  in  1841  to  maintain 
the  Corn-laws,  and  that  in  1846  he  repealed  them.  The 
controversy  as  to  the  wisdom  or  unwisdom  of  repealing 
the  Corn-laws  has  long  since  come  to  an  end.  They  who 
were  the  uncompromising  opponents  of  Free-trade  at  that 
time  are  proud  to  call  themselves  its  uncompromising  zeal- 
ots now.  Indeed,  there  is  no  more  chance  of  a  reaction 
against  Free-trade  in  England  than  there  is  of  a  reaction 
against  the  rule  of  three.  But  the  controversy  still  exists, 
and  will  probably  always  be  in  dispute,  as  to  the  conduct 
of  Sr"  Robert  Peel. 

The  Melbourne  Ministry  fell,  as  we  have  seen,  in  con- 
sequence of  a  direct  vote  of  want  of  confidence  moved  by 
their  leading  opponent,  and  the  return  of  a  majority  hostile 
to  them  at  the  general  election  that  followed.  The  vote  of 
want  of  confidence  was  levelled  against  their  financial 
policy,  especially  against  Lord  John  Russell's  proposal  to 
substitute  a  fixed  duty  of  eight  shillings  for  Peel's  sliding 
scale.  Sir  Robert  Peel  came  into  office,  and  he  intro- 
duced a  reorganized  scheme  of  a  sliding  scale,  reducing 
the  duties  and  improving  the  system,  but  maintaining  the 
principle.  Lord  John  Russell  proposed  an  amendment 
declaring  that  the  House  of  Commons,  "  considering  the 
evils  which  have  been  caused  by  the  present  Corn-laws, 
and  especially  by  the  fluctuation  of  the  graduated  or  slid- 


.i  i 


■  ■ 

f   , 

Free-Trade  and  the  League. 


251 


pcmgf 
igthe 
Iment 
|g  the 
jtaws, 
slid- 


ing scale,  is  not  prepared  to  adopt  the  measure  of  her 
Majesty's  Government,  which  is  founded  on  the  same 
principles,  and  is  likely  to  be  attended  by  similar  results. " 
The  amendment  was  rejected  by  a  large  majority,  no  less 
than  one  hundred  and  twenty- three.  But  the  question 
between  Free-trade  and  Protection  was  even  more  dis- 
tinctly raised.  Mr.  Villiers  proposed  another  amendment 
declaring  for  the  entire  abolition  of  all  duties  on  grain. 
Only  ninety  votes  were  given  for  the  amendment,  while 
three  hundred  and  ninety-three  were  recorded  against  it. 
Sir  Robert  Peel's  Government,  therefore,  came  into  power 
distinctly  pledged  to  uphold  the  principle  of  protection  for 
home-grown  grain.  Four  years  after  this  Sir  Robert  Peel 
proposed  the  total  abolition  of  the  corn  duties.  For  this 
he  was  denounced  by  some  members  of  his  party  in  Ian- 
guage  more  fierce  and  unmeasured  than  ever  since  has 
been  applied  to  any  leading  statesman.  Mr.  Gladstone 
was  never  assailed  by  the  stanchest  supporter  of  the  Irish 
Church  in  words  so  vituperative  as  those  which  rated  Sir 
Robert  Peel  for  his  supposed  apostasy.  One  eminent 
person,  at  least,  made  his  first  fame  as  a  Parliamentary 
orator  by  his  denunciations  of  the  great  minister  whom 
he  had  previously  eulogized  and  supported. 

"The  history  of  agricultural  distress,"  it  has  been  well 
observed,  "  is  the  history  of  agricultural  abundance. "  This 
looks  at  first  sight  a  paradox ;  but  nothing  can  in  reality 
be  more  plain  and  less  paradoxical.  *'  Whenever,"  to  fol- 
low out  the  passage,  "  Providence,  through  the  blessing  of 
genial  seasons,  fills  the  nation's  stores  with  plenteousness, 
then,  and  then  only,  has  the  cry  of  ruin  to  the  cultivator 
been  proclaimed  as  the  one  great  evil  for  legislation  to 
repress."  This  is,  indeed,  the  very  meaning  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  protection.  When  the  commodity  which  the 
protected  interest  has  to  dispose  of  is  so  abundant  a«  to 
be  easily  attained  by  the  common  body  of  consumers,  then, 
of  course,  the  protected  interest  is  injured  in  its  particular 
way  of  making  money,  and  expects  the  State  to  do  some- 


']• 


B 


'! 


252 


j4  History  of  Our  Own  Tmes, 


thing  to  secure  it  in  the  principal  advantage  of  its  monop* 
oly.  The  greater  quantity  of  grain  a  good  harvest  brings 
for  the  benefit  of  all  the  people,  the  less  the  price  the  corn- 
grower  can  charge  for  it.  His  interest  as  a  monopolist  is 
always  and  inevitably  opposed  to  the  interest  of  the 
community. 

But  it  is  easy  even  now,  when  we  have  almost  forgotten 
the  days  of  protection,  to  see  that  the  Cv>rn-grower  is  not 
likely  either  to  recognize  or  to  admit  this  conflict  of 
interests  between  his  protection  and  the  public  welfare. 
Apart  from  the  natural  tendency  of  every  man  to  think 
that  that  which  does  him  good  must  do  good  to  the  com- 
munity, there  was,  undoubtedly,  something  very  fascinat- 
ing in  the  theory  of  protection.  It  had  a  charming  give 
and  take,  live  and  let  live,  air  about  it.  "  You  give  me  a 
little  more  than  the  market  price  for  my  corn,  and  don't 
you  see  I  shall  be  able  to  buy  all  the  more  of  your  cloth 
and  tea  and  sugar,  or  to  pay  you  the  higher  rent  for  your 
land?"  Such  a  compact  seems  reasonable  and  tempting. 
Almost  up  to  our  own  time  the  legislation  of  the  country 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  classes  who  had  more  to  do  with 
the  growing  of  corn  and  the  ownership  of  land  than  with 
the  making  of  cotton  and  the  working  of  machinery.  The 
great  object  of  legislation  and  of  social  compacts  of  what- 
ever kind  seemed  to  be  to  keep  the  rents  of  the  land-owners 
and  the  prices  of  the  farmers  up  to  a  comfortable  standard. 
It  is  not  particularly  to  the  discredit  of  the  landlords  and 
the  farmers  that  this  was  so.  We  have  seen,  in  later 
times,  how  every  class  in  succession  has  resisted  the  move- 
ment of  the  principle  of  Free-trade  when  it  came  to  be 
applied  to  its  own  particular  interests.  The  paper  manu- 
facturers liked  it  as  little  in  i860  as  the  landlords  and 
farmers  had  done  fifteen  years  earlier.  When  the  cup 
comes  to  be  commended  to  the  lips  of  each  interest  in  turn, 
we  always  find  that  it  is  received  as  a  poisoned  chalice, 
and  taken  with  much  shuddering  and  passionate  protesta- 
tion.    The  particular  advantage  possessed  by  vested  inter- 


Free-Trade  avd  the  League. 


253 


s  monop- 
St  brings 
the  corn- 
opolist  is 
t  of  the 

:orgotten 
er  is  not 
inflict  of 
welfare, 
to  think 
the  com- 
fascinat- 
ing  give 
ve  me  a 
id  don't 
ur  cloth 
or  your 
mpting. 
country 
do  with 
an  with 
The 

what- 
owners 
mdard. 
rds  and 

1  later 

move- 
3  to  be 

manu- 
Js  and 
le  cup 
1  turn, 
lalice, 
)testa- 

inter- 


ests  in  the  Corn-laws  was  that  for  a  long  time  the  landlords 
possessed  all  the  legislative  power  and  all  iht  prestige  as 
well.  There  was  a  certain  reverence  and  sanctity  about 
the  ownership  of  land,  with  its  hereditary  descent  and  its 
patriarchal  dignities,  whicl),  the  manufacture  of  paper 
could  not  pretend  to  claim. 

If  it  really  were  true  that  che  legitimate  incomes  or  the 
legitimate  '-^^uence  of  the  landlord  class  in  England  went 
down  -11/  way  because  of  the  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws, 
it  wouid  have  to  be  admitted  that  the  landlords,  like  the 
aristocrats  before  the  French  Revolution,  had  done  some- 
thing themselves  to  encourage  the  growth  of  new  and 
disturbing  ideas.  Before  the  Revolution,  free  thought 
and  the  equality  and  brotherhood  of  man  were  beginning 
to  be  pet  doctrines  among  the  French  nobles  and  among 
their  wives  and  daughters.  It  was  the  whim  of  the  hour 
to  talk  Rousseau,  and  to  affect  indifference  to  rank,  and 
a  general  faith  in  a  good  time  coming  of  equality  and 
brotherhood.  In  something  of  the  same  fashion  the 
aristocracy  of  England  were  for  some  time  before  the 
repeal  of  the  Corn-laws  illustrating  a  sort  of  revival 
of  patriarchal  ideas  about  the  duties  of  property.  The 
influence  was  stirring  everywhere.  Oxford  was  be- 
ginning to  busy  itself  in  the  revival  of  the  olden  influ- 
ence of  the  Church.  The  Young  England  party,  as  they 
were  then  called,  were  ardent  to  restore  the  good  old  days 
when  the  noble  was  the  father  of  the  poor  and  the  chief  of 
his  neighborhood.  All  manner  of  pretty  whimsies  were 
caught  up  with  this  ruling  idea  to  give  them  an  appear- 
ance of  earnest  purpose.  The  young  landlord  exhibited 
himself  in  the  attitude  of  a  protector,  patron,  and  friend 
to  all  his  tenants.  Doles  were  formally  given  at  stated 
hours  to  all  who  would  come  for  them  to  the  castle  gate. 
Young  noblemen  played  cricket  with  the  peasants  on  their 
estate,  and  the  Saturnian  Age  was  believed  by  a  good 
many  persons  to  be  returning  for  the  express  benefit  of 
Old,  or  rather  of  Young,  England.     There  was  something 


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Photographic 

Sdences 

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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


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254 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


like  a  party  being  formed  in  Parliament  for  the  realization 
of  Young  England's  idyllic  purposes.  It  comprised  among 
its  numbers  several  more  or  less  gifted  youths  of  rank, 
who  were  full  of  enthusiasm  and  poetic  aspirations  and 
nonsense ;  and  it  had  the  encouragement  and  support  of 
one  man  of  genius,  who  had  no  natural  connection  with 
the  English  aristocracy,  but  who  was  afterward  destined 
to  be  the  successful  leader  of  the  Conservative  and  aristo- 
cratic party ;  to  be  its  savior  when  it  was  all  but  down  in 
the  dust ;  to  guide  it  to  victory,  and  make  it  once  more, 
for  the  time  at  least,  supreme  in  the  political  life  of  the 
country.  This  brilliant  champion  of  Conservatism  has 
often  spoken  of  the  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws  as  the  fall  of 
the  landlord  class  in  England.  If  the  landlords  fell,  it 
must  be  said  of  them,  as  has  been  fairly  said  of  many  a 
dynasty,  that  they  never  deserved  better,  on  the  whole, 
than  just  at  the  time  when  the  blow  struck  them  down. 

The  famous  Corn-law  of  1815  was  a  copy  of  the  Corn-law 
of  1670,  The  former  measure  imposed  a  duty  on  the  im- 
portation of  foreign  grain  which  amounted  to  prohibition. 
Wheat  might  be  exported  upon  the  payment  of  one  shil- 
ling per  quarter  customs  duty ;  but  importation  was  prac- 
tically prohibited  until  the  price  of  wheat  had  reached 
eighty  shillings  a  quarter.  The  Com -law  of  1815  was 
hurried  through  Parliament,  absolutely  closing  the  ports 
against  the  importation  of  foreign  grain  until  the  price  of 
our  home-grown  grain  had  reached  the  magic  figure  of 
eighty  shillings  a  quarter.  It  was  hurried  through,  de- 
spite the  most  earnest  petitions  from  the  commercial  and 
mau'^facturing  classes.  A  great  deal  of  popular  disturb- 
ance attended  the  passing  of  the  measure.  There  were 
riots  in  London,  and  the  houses  of  several  of  the  supporters 
of  the  bill  were  attacked.  Incendiary  fires  blazed  in  many 
parts  of  the  country.  In  the  Isle  of  Ely  there  were  riots 
which  lasted  for  two  days  and  two  nights,  and  the  aid  of 
the  military  had  to  be  called  in  to  suppress  them.  Five 
persons  were  hanged  as  the  result  of  these  disturbances. 


m^ 


« ( 


Free- Trade  and  the  League. 


255 


One  might  excuse  a  demagogue  who  compared  the  event 
to  the  suppression  of  some  of  the  food  riots  in  France  just 
before  the  Revolution,  of  which  we  only  read  that  the 
people — the  poor,  that  is  to  say — turned  out  demanding 
bread,  and  the  ringleaders  were  immediately  hanged,  and 
there  was  an  end  of  the  matter.  After  the  Corn-law  of 
1815,  thus  ominously  introduced,  there  were  Sliding-scale 
Acts,  having  for  their  business  to  establish  a  varying 
system  of  duty,  so  that,  according  as  the  price  of  home- 
produced  wheat  rose  to  a  certain  height,  the  duty  on  im- 
ported wheat  sank  in  proportion.  The  principle  of  all  these 
measures  was  the  same.  It  was  founded  on  the  assump- 
tion that  the  corn  grew  for  the  benefit  of  the  grower  first 
of  all ;  and  that  until  he  had  been  secured  in  a  handsome 
profit  the  public  at  large  had  no  right  to  any  reduction  in 
the  cost  of  food.  When  the  harvest  was  a  good  one,  and 
the  golden  grain  was  plenty,  then  the  soul  of  the  grower 
was  afraid,  and  he  called  out  to  Parliament  to  protect  him 
against  the  calamity  of  having  to  sell  his  com  any  cheaper 
than  in  years  of  famine.  He  did  not  see  all  the  time  that 
if  the  prosperity  of  the  country  in  general  was  enhanced, 
he  too  must  come  to  benefit  by  it. 

Naturally  it  was  in  places  like  Manchester  that  the  fal- 
lacy of  all  this  theory  was  first  commonly  perceived  and 
most  warmly  resented.  The  Manchester  manufacturers 
saw  that  the  customers  for  their  goods  were  to  be  found 
in  all  parts  of  the  world ;  and  they  knew  that  at  every 
turn  they  were  hampered  in  their  dealings  with  the  cus- 
tomers by  the  system  of  protective  duties.  They  wanted 
to  sell  their  goods  wherever  they  could  find  buyers,  and 
they  chafed  at  any  barrier  between  them  and  the  sale. 
Manchester,  from  the  time  of  its  first  having  Parliamentary 
representation — only  a  few  years  before  the  foundation  of 
the  Anti-Corn-Law  League — had  always  spoken  out  for 
Free-trade.  The  fascinating  sophism  which  had  Guch 
charms  for  other  communities,  that  by  paying  more  than 
was  actually  necessary  for  everything  all  round,  Dick  en- 


2^6 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


*-N 


l-;:!;^; 


V0l 


n^W 


« i 


(t 


riched  Tom,  while  Tom  was  at  the  same  time  enriching 
Dick,  had  no  charms  for  the  intelligence  and  the  practical 
experience  of  Manchester.  The  close  of  the  year  1836  was 
a  period  of  stagnant  trade  and  u^eneral  depression,  arising, 
in  some  parts  of  the  country,  to  actual  and  severe  suffering. 
Some  members  of  Parliament  and  other  influential  men 
were  stricken  with  the  idea,  which  it  does  not  seem  to 
have  required  much  strength  of  observation  to  foster,  that 
it  could  not  be  for  the  advantage  of  the  country  in  general 
to  have  the  price  of  bread  very  high  at  a  time  v»^hen 
wages  were  very  low  and  work  was  scarce.  A  movement 
against  the  Corn-laws  began  in  London.  An  Anti-Corn- 
Law  Association  on  a  small  scale  was  formed.  Its  list  of 
members  bore  the  names  of  more  than  twenty  members  of 
Parliament,  and  for  a  time  the  society  had  a  look  of  vigor 
about  it  It  came  to  nothing,  however.  London  has 
never  been  found  an  effective  nursery  of  agitation.  It  is 
too  large  to  have  any  central  interest  or  source  of  action. 
It  is  too  dependent,  socially  and  economically,  on  the 
patronage  of  the  higher  and  wealthier  classes.  London 
has  never  been  to  England  what  Paris  has  been  to  France. 
It  has  hardly  ever  made  or  represented  thoroughly  the 
public  opinion  of  England  during  any  great  crisis.  A 
new  centre  of  operations  soon  had  to  be  sought,  and  various 
causes  combined  to  make  Lancashire  the  proper  place. 
In  the  year  1838  the  town  of  Bolton-le-Moors,  in  Lanca- 
shire, was  the  victim  of  a  terrible  commercial  crisis. 
Thirty  out  of  the  fifty  manufacturing  establishments  which 
the  town  contained  were  closed ;  nearly  a  fourth  of  all  the 
houses  of  business  were  closed  and  actually  deserted ;  and 
more  than  five  thousand  workmen  were  without  homes  or 
means  of  subsistence.  All  the  intelligence  and  energy  of 
Lancashire  was  roused.  One  obvious  guarantee  against 
starvation  was  cheap  bread,  and  cheap  bread  meant,  of 
course,  the  abolition  of  the  Corn-laws,  for  these  laws  were 
constructed  on  the  principle  that  it  was  necessary  to  keep 
bread  dear.     A  meeting  was  held  in  Manchester  to  con- 


Ir'i 


♦  f 


i  '4}  ti  I 


Free-Trade  and  the  League. 


257 


nriching 

practical 

[836  was 

arising, 

uffering. 

tial  men 

seem  to 

Iter,  that 

I  general 

le  v^rhen 

ovement 

iti-Corn- 

ts  list  of 

mbers  of 

of  vigor 

idon  has 

n.     It  is 

if  action. 

,  on  the 

London 

France. 

hly  the 

isis.     A 

various 

ir  place. 

Lanca- 

|1  crisis. 

s  which 

If  all  the 

ed;  and 

omes  or 

ergy  of 

against 

jeant,  of 

s  were 

o  keep 

to  con- 


sider measures  necessary  to  be  adopted  for  bringing  about 
the  complete  repeal  of  these  laws.  The  Manchester 
Chamber  of  Commerce  adopted  a  petition  to  Parliament 
against  the  Corn-laws.  The  Anti-Corn-law  agitation  had 
been  fairly  launched. 

From  that  time  it  grew,  and  grew  in  importance  and 
strength.  Meetings  were  held  in  various  towns  of  England 
and  Scotland.  Associations  were  formed  everywhere  to 
co-operate  with  the  movement,  which  had  its  headquarters 
in  Manchester.  In  Newall's  Buildings,  Market  Street, 
Manchester,  the  work  of  the  League  was  really  done  for 
years.  The  leaders  of  the  movement  gave  up  their  time 
day  by  day  to  its  service.  The  League  had  to  encounter 
a  great  deal  of  rather  fierce  opposition  from  the  Chartists, 
who  loudl)''  proclaimed  that  the  whole  movement  was  only 
meant  to  entrap  them  once  more  into  an  alliance  with  the 
middle  classes  and  the  employers,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Reform  Bill,  in  order  that  when  they  had  been  made  the 
cat's-paw  again  they  might  again  be  thrown  contemptu- 
ously aside.  On  the  other  hand,  the  League  had  from 
the  first  the  cordial  co-operation  of  Daniel  O'Connell,  who 
became  one  of  their  principal  orators  when  they  held 
meetings  in  the  metropolis.  They  issued  pamphlets  by 
hundreds  of  thousands,  and  sent  lecturers  all  over  the 
country  explaining  the  principles  of  Free-trade.  A 
gigantic  propaganda  of  Free-trade  opinions  was  called  into 
existence.  Money  was  raised  by  the  holding  of  bazaars  in 
Manchester  and  in  London,  and  by  calling  for  subscrip- 
tions. A  bazaar  in  Manchester  brought  in  ten  thousand 
pounds;  one  in  London  raised  rather  more  than  double 
that  sum,  not  including  the  subscriptions  that  were  contrib- 
uted. A  Free-trade  Hall  was  built  in  Manchester.  This 
building  had  an  interesting  history  full  of  good  omen  for 
the  cause.  The  ground  on  which  the  hall  was  erected  was 
the  property  of  Mr.  Cobden,  and  was  placed  by  him  at  the 
disposal  of  the  League.  That  ground  was  the  scene  of 
what  was  known  in  Manchester  as  the  Massacre  of  Peter- 
VoL.  I.— 17 


II  1^:; 


■fi' 

Mm 


ill-,' 


i 


m    1:^1. 


^Htt 


258 


y4  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


loo.  On  August  1 6th,  1819,  a  meeting  of  Manchester 
Reformers  was  held  on  that  spot,  which  was  dispersed  by 
an  attack  of  soldiers  and  militia,  with  the  loss  of  many 
lives.  The  memory  of  that  day  rankled  in  the  hearts  of 
the  Manchester  Liberals  for  long  after,  and  perhaps  no 
better  means  could  be  found  for  purifying  the  ground 
from  the  stain  and  the  shame  of  such  bloodshed  than  its 
dedication  by  the  modern  apostle  of  peace  and  Free-trade 
as  a  site  whereon  to  build  a  hall  sacred  to  the  promulgation 
of  his  favorite  doctrines. 

The  times  were  peculiarly  favorable  to  the  new  sort  of 
propaganda  which  came  into  being  with  the  Anti-Corn- Law 
League.  A  few  years  before  such  an  agitation  would 
hardly  have  found  the  means  of  makino^  its  influence  felt 
all  over  the  country.  The  very  reduction  of  the  cost  of 
postage  alone  must  have  facilitated  its  labors  to  an  extent 
beyond  calculation.  The  inundation  of  the  country  with 
pamphlets,  tracts,  and  reports  of  speeches  would  have  been 
scarcely  possible  under  the  old  system,  and  would  in  any 
case  have  swallowed  up  a  far  larger  amount  of  money  than 
even  the  League  with  its  ample  resources  would  have  been 
able  to  supply.  In  all  parts  of  the  country  railways  were 
being  opened,  and  these  enabled  the  lecturers  of  the 
League  to  hasten  from  town  to  town  and  to  keep  the  cause 
always  alive  in  the  popular  mind.  All  these  advantages 
and  many  others  might,  however,  have  proved  of  little 
avail  if  the  League  had  not  from  the  first  been  in  the 
hands  of  men  who  seemed  as  if  they  came  by  special  ap- 
pointment to  do  its  work.  Great  as  the  work  was  which 
the  League  did,  it  will  be  remembered  in  England  almost 
as  much  because  of  the  men  who  won  the  success  as  on 
account  of  the  success  itself. 

The  nominal  leader  of  the  Free-trade  party  in  Parlia- 
ment was  for  many  years  Mr.  Charles  Villiers,  a  man  of 
aristocratic  family  and  surroundings,  of  remarkable  ability, 
and  of  the  steadiest  fidelity  to  the  cause  he  had  undertaken. 
Nothing  is  a  more  familiar  phenomenon  in  the  history  of 


anchester 
persed  by 
of  many 
hearts  of 
erhaps  no 
le  ground 
1  than  its 
Free-trade 
mulgation 

lew  sort  of 
-Corn-Law 
ion  would 
luence  felt 
the  cost  of 
)  an  extent 
luntry  with 
1  have  been 
uld  in  any 
ncney  than 
I  have  been 
Iways  were 
ers  of  the 
the  cause 
.dvantages 
d  of  little 
|een  in  the 
pecial  ap- 
was  which 
,nd  almost 
cess  as  on 

in  Parlia- 
a  man  of 

)le  ability, 

idertaken. 

[history  of 


Free-Trade  and  the  League. 


359 


English  political  agitation  than  the  aristocrat  who  assumes 
the  popular  cause  and  cries  out  for  the  "  rights"  of  the 
"  unenfranchised  millions. "  But  it  was  something  new  to 
find  a  man  of  Mr.  Villiers*  class  devoting  himself  to  a 
cause  so  entirely  practical  and  business-like  as  that  of  the 
repeal  of  the  Corn-laws.  Mr.  Villiers  brought  forward  for 
several  successive  sessions  in  the  House  of  Commons  a 
motion  in  favor  of  the  total  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws.  His 
eloquence  and  his  argumentative  power  served  the  great 
purpose  of  drawing  the  attention  of  the  country  to  the 
whole  question,  and  making  converts  to  the  principle 
he  advocated.  The  House  of  Commons  has  always  of  late 
years  been  the  best  platform  from  which  to  address  the 
country.  In  political  agitation  it  has  thus  been  made  to 
prepare  the  way  for  the  schemes  of  legislation  which  it 
has  itself  always  begun  by  reprobating.  But  Mr.  Villiers 
might  have  gone  on  for  all  his  life  dividing  the  House  of 
Commons  on  the  question  of  Free-trade  without  getting 
much  nearer  to  his  object,  if  it  were  not  for  the  manner 
in  which  the  cause  was  taken  up  by  the  country,  and  more 
particularly  by  the  great  manufacturing  towns  of  the 
North.  Until  the  passing  of  Lord  Grey's  Reform  Bill 
these  towns  had  no  representation  in  Parliament.  They 
seemed  destined  after  that  event  to  make  up  for  their  long 
exclusion  from  representative  influence  by  taking  the 
government  of  the  country  into  their  own  hands.  Of  late 
years  they  have  lost  some  of  their  relative  influence.  They 
have  not  now  all  the  power  that  for  no  inconsiderable  time 
they  undoubtedly  possessed.  The  reforms  they  chiefly 
aimed  at  have  been  carried,  and  the  spirit  which  in  times 
of  stress  and  struggle  kept  their  populations  almost  of  one 
mind  has  less  necessity  of  existence  now.  Manchester, 
Birmingham  and  Leeds  are  no  wit  less  important  to  the 
life  of  the  nation  now  than  they  were  before  Free-trade. 
But  their  supremacy  does  not  exist  now  as  it  did  then.  At 
that  time  it  was  town  against  country,  Manchester  repre- 
senting the  towns,  and  the  whole  Conservative  (at  one 


IM 


i 


260 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


I'r 

'  ¥'    i  ^       ' 

h\ 

,('  • 

tl''):^ 

W              ■ 

^1,  H  ,    ! 

Kjjlj 

i: 

^•M^jjilUij 

i  '■ 

period  almost  the  whole  land-owning)  body  representing 
the  country.  The  Manchester  school,  as  it  was  called, 
then  and  for  long  after  had  some  teachers  and  leaders  who 
were  of  themselves  capable  of  making  any  school  powerful 
and  respected.  With  the  Manchester  school  began  a  new 
kind  of  popular  agitation.  Up  to  that  time  agitation 
meant  appeal  to  passion,  and  lived  by  provoking  passion. 
Its  cause  might  be  good  or  bad,  but  the  way  of  promoting 
it  was  the  same.  The  Manchester  school  introduced  the 
agitation  which  appealed  to  reason  and  argument  only, 
which  stirred  men's  hearts  with  figures  of  arithmetic 
rather  than  figures  of  speech,  and  which  converted  mob 
meetings  to  political  economy. 

The  real  leader  of  the  movement  was  Mr.  Richard  Cob- 
den.  Mr.  Cobden  was  a  man  belonging  to  the  yeoman 
class.  He  had  received  but  a  moderate  education.  His 
father  dying  while  the  great  Free-trader  was  still  young, 
Richard  Cobden  was  taken  in  charge  by  an  uncle,  who 
had  a  wholesale  warehouse  in  the  City  of  London,  and  who 
gave  him  employment  here.  Cobden  afterward  became 
a  partner  in  a  Manchester  pr?nted-cotton  factory ;  and  he 
travelled  occasionally  on  the  commercial  business  of  this 
establishment.  He  had  a  great  liking  for  travel,  but  not 
by  any  means  as  the  ordinary  tourist  travels ;  the  interest 
of  Cobden  was  not  in  scenery,  or  in  art,  or  in  ruins,  but 
in  men.  He  studied  the  condition  of  countries  with  a 
view  to  the  manner  in  which  it  affected  the  men  and 
women  of  the  present,  and  through  them  was  likely  to 
affect  the  future.  On  everything  that  he  saw  he  turned  a 
quick  and  intelligent  eye;  and  he  saw  for  himself  and 
thought  for  himself.  Wherever  he  went  he  wanted  to 
learn  something.  He  had  in  abundance  that  peculiar 
faculty  which  some  great  men  of  widely  different  stamp 
from  him  and  from  each  other  have  possessed ;  of  which 
Goethe  frankly  boasted,  and  which  Mirabeau  had  more 
largely  than  he  was  always  willing,  to  acknowledge;  the 
faculty  which  exacts  from  every  one  with  whom  its  owner 


esenting 
3  called, 
iers  who 
powerful 
m  a  new 
igitation 
passion, 
omoting 
iced  the 
nt  only, 
ithmetic 
ted  mob 

ard  Cob- 
yeoman 
m.     His 
.1  young, 
de,  who 
and  who 
became 
;  and  he 
I  o£  this 
but  not 
interest 
lins,  but 
with  a 
lien  and 
ikely  to 
umed  a 
elf  and 
mted  to 
peculiar 
stamp 
>f  which 
id  more 
ge;  the 
s  owner 


II 


>i 


-it*'. 


RICHARD    COBDEN,  M.P. 


Free-Trade  and  the  League, 


26\ 


comes  into  contact  some  contribution  to  his  stock  of  in- 
formation and  to  his  advantage.  Cobden  could  learn 
something  from  everybody.  It  is  doubtful  whether  he 
ever  came  even  into  momentary  acquaintance  with  any 
one  whom  he  did  not  compel  to  yield  him  something  in 
the  way  of  information.  He  travelled  very  widely  for  a 
time,  when  travelling  was  more  difficult  work  than  it  is  at 
present.  He  made  himself  familiar  with  most  of  the 
countries  of  Europe,  with  many  parts  of  the  East,  and, 
what  was  then  a  rarer  accomplishment,  with  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  He  did  not  make  the  familiar  grand 
tour,  and  then  dismiss  the  places  he  had  seen  from  his 
active  memory.  He  studied  them,  and  visited  many  of 
them  again  to  compare  early  with  later  impressions.  This 
was  in  itself  an  education  of  the  highest  value  for  the 
career  he  proposed  to  pursue.  When  he  was  about  thirty 
years  of  age  he  began  to  acquire  a  certain  reputation  as 
the  author  of  pamphlets  directed  against  some  of  the  pet 
doctrines  of  old-fashioned  statesmanship — the  balance  of 
power  in  Europe;  the  necessity  of  maintaining  a  State 
Church  in  Ireland;  the  importance  of  allowing  no  Euro- 
pean quarrel  to  go  on  without  England's  intervention; 
and  similar  dogmas.  Mr.  Cobden 's  opinions  then  were 
very  much  as  they  continued  to  the  day  of  his  death.  He 
seemed  to  have  come  to  the  maturity  of  his  convictions  all 
at  once,  and  to  have  passed  through  no  further  change 
either  of  growth  or  of  decay.  But  whatever  might  be 
said  then  or  now  of  the  doctrines  he  maintained,  there 
could  be  only  one  opinion  as  to  the  skill  and  force  which 
upheld  them  with  pen  as  well  as  tongue.  The  tongue, 
however,  was  his  best  weapon.  If  oratory  were  a  business 
and  not  an  art — that  is,  if  its  test  were  its  success  rather 
than  its  form — then  it  might  be  contended  reasonably 
enough  that  Mr.  Cobden  was  one  of  the  greatest  orators 
England  has  ever  known.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  per- 
suasiveness of  his  style.  His  manner  was  simple,  sweet, 
and  earnest.     It  was  persuasive,  but  it  had  not  the  sort  of 


a6a 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


W 


:?i 


•'  / 


(■  :     i 


persuasiveness  which  is  merely  a  better  kind  of  plausi- 
bility. It  persuaded  by  convincing.  It  was  transparently 
sincere.  The  light  of  its  convictions  shone  all  through  it. 
It  aimed  at  the  reason  and  the  judgment  of  the  listener, 
and  seemed  to  be  convincing  him  to  his  own  interest 
against  his  prejudices.  Cobden's  style  was  almost  exclu> 
sively  conversational ;  but  he  had  a  clear,  well-toned  voice, 
with  a  quiet,  unassuming  power  in  it  which  enabled  him 
to  make  his  words  heard  distinctly  and  without  effort  all 
through  the  great  meetings  he  had  often  to  address.  Ilis 
speeches  were  full  of  variet)'.  He  illustrated  every  argu- 
ment by  something  drawn  from  his  personal  observation 
or  from  reading,  and  his  illustrations  were  always  striking, 
appropriate,  and  interesting.  He  had  a  large  amount  of 
bright  and  winning  humor,  and  he  spoke  the  simplest  and 
purest  English.  He  never  used  an  unnecessary  sentence, 
or  failed  for  a  single  moment  to  make  his  meaning  clear. 
Many  strong  opponents  of  Mr.  Cobden's  opinions  con- 
fessed, even  during  his  lifetime,  that  they  sometimes 
found  with  dismay  their  most  cherished  convictions 
crumbling  away  beneath  his  flow  of  easy  argument.  In 
the  stormy  times  of  national  passion  Mr.  Cobden  was  less 
powerful.  When  the  question  was  one  to  be  settled  by 
the  rules  that  govern  man's  substantial  interests,  or  even 
by  the  standing  rules,  if  such  an  expression  may  be  allowed, 
of  morality,  then  Cobden  was  unequalled.  So  long  as  the 
controversy  could  be  settled  after  this  fashion:  "I  will 
show  you  that  in  such  a  course  you  are  acting  injuriously 
to  your  own  interests ;"  or  "  You  are  doing  what  a  fair 
and  just  man  ought  not  to  do" — so  long  as  argument  of 
that  kind  could  sway  the  conduct  of  men,  then  there  was 
no  one  who  could  convince  as  Cobden  could.  But  when 
the  hour  and  mood  of  passion  came,  and  a  man  or  a  nation 
said,  "  I  do  not  care  any  longer  whether  this  is  for  my 
interest  or  not — I  don't  care  whether  you  call  it  right  or 
wrong — this  way  my  instincts  drive  me,  and  this  way  I  am 
going" — then  Mr.  Cobden's  teaching,  the  very  perfection 


'fS 


Free-Trade  and  the  League. 


263 


i  plausi- 

parently 

rough  it. 

listener, 

interest 

St  exclu- 

3d  voice, 

}led  him 

jffort  all 

ss.     His 

ry  argu- 

ervation 

striking, 

nount  of 

•lest  and 

entence, 

ig  clear. 

)ns  con- 

netimes 

victions 

mt.     In 

va.s  less 

tied  by 

or even 

lowed, 

as  the 

I  will 

riously 

a  fair 

nent  of 

re  was 

t  when 

nation 

'or  my 

ght  or 

y  I  am 

"ection 


as  it  was  of  common-sense  and  fair  play,  was  out  of  season. 
It  could  not  answer  feeling  with  feeling.     It  was  not  able 
to  "overcrow,"  in  the  words  of  Shakespeare  and  Spenser, 
one  emotion  by  another.     The  defect  of  Mr.  Cobden's  style 
of  mind  and  temper  is  fitly  illustrated  in  the  deficiency  of 
his  method  of  argument.     His  sort  of  education,  his  modes 
of  observation,  his  way  of  turning  travel  to  account,   all 
went  together  to  make  him  the  r-'an  he  was.     The  apostle 
of  common-sense  and  fair  dealing,  he  had  no  sympathy 
with  the  passions  of  men ;  he  did  not  understand  them ; 
they  passed  for  nothing  in  his  calculations.     His  judg- 
ment of  men  and  of  nations  was  based  far  too  much 
on  his  knowledge  of  his   own   motives   and    chaiacter. 
He    knew  that    in    any    given    case    he    could  always 
trust  himself  to  act  the  part  of  a  just  and  prudent  man; 
and  he  assumed  that  all  the  world  could  be  governed 
by  the  rules  of  prudence  and  of  equity.     History  had  little 
interest  for  him,  except  as  it  testified  to  man's  advance- 
ment and  steady  progress,   and  furnished  arguments  to 
show  that  men  prospered  by  liberty,  peace,  and  just  deal- 
ings with  their  neighbors.     He  cared  little  or  nothing  for 
mere  sentiments.     Even  where  these  had  their  root  in 
some  human  tendency  that  was  noble  in  itself,  he  did  not 
reverence  them  if  they  seemed  to  stand  in  the  way  of 
men's  acting  peacefully  and  prudently.  He  did  not  see  why 
the  mere  idea  of  nationality,  for  example,  should  induce 
people  to  disturb  themselves  by  insurrections  and  wars,  so 
long  as  they  were  tolerably  well  governed,  and  allowed  to 
exist  in  peace  and  to  make  an  honest  living.     Thus  he 
never  represented  mor^  than  half  the  English  character. 
He  was  always  out  of  sympathy  with  his  countrymen  on 
some  great  political  question. 

But  he  seemed  as  if  he  were  designed  by  nature  to  con- 
duct to  success  such  an  agitation  as  that  against  the  Corn- 
laws.  He  found  some  colleagues  who  were  worthy  of 
him.  His  chief  companion  in  the  campaign  was  Mr. 
Bright.     Mr.  Bright 's  fame  is  not  so  completely  bound 


264 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


is^^ 


::!4' 


!•]' 


up  with  the  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws,  or  even  with  the  ex- 
tension of  the  suffrage,  as  that  of  Mr.  Cobden.  If  Mr. 
Bright  had  been  on  the  wrong  side  of  every  cause  he 
pleaded ;  if  his  agitation  had  been  as  conspicuous  for  fail- 
ure as  it  was  for  success,  he  would  still  be  famous  among 
English  public  men.  He  was  what  Mr.  Cobden  was  not,  an 
orator  of  the  very  highest  class.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
English  public  life  has  ever  produced  a  man  who  possessed 
more  of  the  qualifications  of  a  great  orator  than  Mr. 
Bright.  He  had  a  commanding  presence;  not,  indeed, 
the  stately  and  colossal  form  of  O'Connell,  but  a  massive 
figure,  a  large  head,  a  handsome  and  expressive  face. 
His  voice  was  powerful,  resonant,  clear,  with  a  peculiar 
vibration  in  it  which  lent  unspeakable  effect  to  any  pas- 
sages of  pathos  or  of  scorn.  His  style  of  speaking  was 
exactly  what  a  conventional  demagogue's  ought  not  to 
be.  It  was  pure  to  austerity ;  it  was  stripped  of  all  super- 
fluous ornament.  It  never  gushed  or  foamed.  It  never 
allowed  itself  to  be  mastered  by  passion.  The  first  pecu- 
liarity that  struck  the  listener  was  its  superb  self-restraint. 
The  orator  at  his  most  powerful  passages  appeared  as  if 
he  were  rather  keeping  in  his  strength  than  taxing  it  with 
effort.  His  voice  was,  for  the  most  part,  calm  and  meas- 
ured ;  he  hardly  ever  indulged  in  much  gesticulation.  He 
never,  under  the  pressure  of  whatever  emotion,  shouted 
or  stormed.  The  fire  of  his  eloquence  was  a  white-heat, 
intense,  consuming,  but  never  sparkling  or  sputtering. 
He  had  an  admirable  gift  of  humor  and  a  keen  ironical 
power.  He  had  read  few  books,  but  of  those  he  read  he 
was  a  laaster.  The  English  Bible  and  Milton  were  his 
chief  studies.  His  style  was  probably  formed,  for  the  most 
part,  on  the  Bible;  for  although  he  may  have  moulded  his 
general  way  of  thinking  and  his  simple,  strong  morality 
on  the  lei^sons  he  found  in  Milton,  his  mere  language  bore 
little  trace  of  Milton's  stately  classicism  with  its  Hellenized 
and  Latinized  terminology,  but  was  above  all  things 
Saxon  and  simple.     Bright  was  a  man  of  the  middle  class. 


■u  i; 


Free-Trade  and  the  League. 


26= 


I  with  the  ex- 
•den.     If  Mr. 
ery  cause  he 
:uous  for  fail- 
imous  among 
jn  was  not,  an 
btful  whether 
irho  possessed 
or  than  Mr. 
not,  indeed, 
)ut  a  massive 
•ressive  face. 
;h  a  peculiar 
L  to  any  pas- 
speaking  was 
Dught  not  to 
of  £ll  super- 
2d.     It  never 
le  first  pecu- 
ielf-restraint. 
peared  as  if 
ixing  it  with 
tn  and  meas- 
ation.     He 
ion,  shouted 
white-heat, 
sputtering, 
een  ironical 
he  read  he 
on  were  his 
"or  the  most 
noulded  his 
ig  morality 
guage  bore 
Hellenized 
all  things 
iddle  class. 


His  family  were  Quakers  of  a  somewhat  austere  mould. 
They  were  manufacturers  of  carpet  in  Rochdale,  Lanca- 
shire, and  had  made  considerable  money  in  their  business. 
John  Bright,  therefore,  was  raised  above  the  temptations 
which  often  beset  the  eloquent  young  man  who  takes  up 
a  democratic  cause  in  a  country  like  ours;  and,  as  our 
public  opinion  goes,  it  probably  was  to  his  advantage, 
when  fir.st  he  made  his  appearance  in  Parliament,  that  he 
was  well  known  to  be  a  man  of  some  means,  and  not  a 
clever  and  needy  adventurer. 

Mr.  Bright  himself  has  given  an  interesting  account  of 
his  first  meeting  with  Mr.  Cobden : 

"  The  first  time  I  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Cobden 
was  in  connection  with  the  great  question  of  eciucation. 
I  went  over  to  Manchester  to  call  upon  him  and  invite  him 
to  come  to  Rochdale  to  speak  at  a  meeting  about  to  be 
held  in  the  school-room  of  the  Baptist  Chapel  in  West 
Street.  I  found  him  in  his  counting-house.  I  told  him 
what  I  wanted ;  his  countenance  lighted  up  with  pleasure 
to  find  that  others  were  working  in  the  same  cause.  He, 
without  hesitation,  agreed  to  come.  He  came,  and  he 
spoke;  and  though  he  was  then  so  young  a  speaker,  yet 
the  qualities  of  his  speech  were  such  as  remained  with  him 
so  long  as  he  was  able  to  speak  at  all — clearness,  logic, 
a  conversational  eloquence,  a  persuasiveness  which,  when 
combined  with  the  absolute  truth  there  was  in  his  eye  and 
in  his  countenance,  became  a  power  it  was  almost  impos- 
sible to  resist. " 

Still  more  remarkable  is  the  description  Mr.  Bright  has 
given  of  Cobden's  first  appeal  to  him  to  join  in  the  agita- 
tion for  the  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws : 

"  I  was  in  Leamington,  and  Mr.  Cobden  called  on  me. 
I  was  then  in  the  depths  of  grief — I  may  almost  say  of 
despair — for  the  light  and  sunshine  of  my  house  had  been 
extinguished.  All  that  was  left  on  earth  of  my  young 
wife,  except  the  memory  of  a  sainted  life  and  a  too  brief 
happiness,   was  lying  still  and  cold  in  the  chamber  above 


266 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


it '  ' ' 


us.  Mr.  Cobden  called  on  me  as  his  friend  and  addressed 
me,  as  you  may  suppose,  with  words  of  condolence.  After 
a  time  he  looked  up  and  said:  'There  are  thousands  and 
thousands  of  homes  in  England  at  this  moment  where 
wives  and  mothers  and  children  are  dying  of  hunger. 
Now,  when  the  first  paroxysm  of  your  grief  is  passed,  I 
would  advise  you  to  come  with  me,  and  we  will  never  rest 
until  the  Corn-laws  are  repealed. '  " 

The  invitation  thus  given  was  cordially  accepted,  and 
from  that  time  dates  the  almost  unique  fellowship  of  these 
two  men,  who  worked  together  in  the  closest  brotherhood, 
who  loved  each  other  as  not  all  brothers  do,  who  were 
associated  so  closely  in  the  public  mind  that  -until  Cobden's 
death  the  name  of  one  was  scarcely  ever  mentioned  with- 
out that  of  the  other.  There  was  something  positively 
romantic  about  their  mutual  attachment.  Each  led  a 
noble  life,  each  was  in  his  own  way  a  man  of  genius; 
each  was  simple  and  strong.  Rivalry  between  them  would 
have  been  impossible,  although  they  were  -every  day  being 
compared  and  contrasted  by  both  friendly  and  unfriendly 
critics.  Their  gifts  were  admirably  suited  to  make  them 
powerful  allies.  Each  had  something  that  the  other 
wanted.  Bright  h ^/S.  not  Cobden's  winning  persuasiveness 
nor  his  surprising  ease  and  force  of  argument.  But  Cob- 
den had  not  anything  like  his  companion's  oratorical 
power.  He  had  not  the  tones  of  scorn,  of  pathos,  of 
humor,  and  of  passion.  The  two  together  made  a  genuine 
power  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  on  tlie  platform. 
Mr.  Kinglake,  who  is?  as  little  in  sympathy  with  the  gen- 
eral political  opinions  of  Cobden  and  Bright  as  any  man 
well  could  be,  has  borne  admirable  testimony  to  their 
argumentative  power  and  to  their  influence  over  the 
House  of  Commons :  "  These  two  orators  had  shown  with 
what  a  strength,  with  what  a  masterly  skull,  with  what 
patience,  with  what  a  high  courage,  they  could  carry  a 
scientific  truth  through  the  storms  of  politics.  They  had 
shown  that  they  could  arouse  and  govern  the  assenting 


!•■ 


Free-Trade  and  the  League. 


267 


iddressed 
3.  After 
ands  and 
It  where 
hunger, 
passed,  I 
ever  rest 

•ted,  and 
of  these 
lierhood, 
ho  were 
'obden's 
ed  with- 
)sitively 
i  led  a 
genius; 
n  would 
ly  being 
friendly 
ce  them 
3  other 
iveness 
ut  Cob- 
itorical 
10s,  of 
enuine 
itform. 
le  gen- 
y  man 

their 
sr  the 
n  with 

what 
irry  a 
y  had 
jnting 


thousands  who  listened  to  them  with  delight — that  they 
could  bend  the  House  of  Commons— that  they  could  press 
their  creed  upon  a  Prime-minister,  and  put  upon  his  mind 
so  hard  a  stress  that  after  a  while  he  felt  it  to  be  a  torture 
and  a  violence  to  his  reason  to  have  to  make  a  stand 
against  them.  Nay,  more.  Each  of  these  gifted  men  had 
proved  that  he  could  go  bravely  into  the  midst  of  angry 
opponents,  could  show  them  their  fallacies  one  by  one, 
destroy  their  favorite  theories  before  their  very  faces,  and 
triumphantly  argue  them  down."  It  was,  indeed,  a  scien- 
tific truth  which,  in  the  first  instance,  Cobden  and  Bright 
undertook  to  force  upon  the  recognition  of  a  Parliament 
composed  in  great  measure  of  the  very  men  who  were 
taught  to  believe  that  their  own  personal  and  class  inter- 
ests were  bound  up  with  the  maintenance  of  the  existing 
economical  creed.  Those  who  hold  that  because  it  was  a 
scientific  truth  the  task  of  its  advocates  ought  to  have  been 
easy,  will  do  well  to  observe  the  success  of  the  resistance 
which  has  been  thus  far  offered  to  it  in  almost  every 
country  but  England  alone. 

These  men  had  many  assistants  and  lieutenants  well 
worthy  to  act  with  them  and  under  them.  Mr.  W.  J.  Fox, 
for  instance,  a  Unitarian  minister  of  great  popularity  and 
remarkable  eloquence,  seemed  at  one  time  almost  to  divide 
public  admiration  as  an  orator  with  Mr.  Cobden  and  Mr. 
Bright.  Mr.  Milner  Gibson,  who  had  bscn  a  Tory,  went 
over  to  the  movement,  and  gave  it  the  assistance  of  trained 
Parliamentary  knowledge  and  very  considerable  debating 
skill.  In  the  Lancashire  towns  the  League  had  the 
advantage  of  being  officered,  for  the  most  part,  by  shrewd 
and  sound  men  of  business,  who  gave  their  time  as  freely 
as  they  gave  their  money  to  the  advancement  of  the  cause. 
It  is  curious  to  compare  the  manner  in  which  the  Anti- 
Corn-law  agitation  was  condurted  with  the  manner  in 
which  the  contemporary  agitation  in  Ireland  for  the  repeal 
of  the  Union  was  carried  on.  In  England  the  agitation 
was  based  on  the  most  strictly  business  principles.     The 


268 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


i*-s 


!rt 


■     i 


leaders  spoke  and  acted  as  if  the  League  itself  were  some 
great  commercial  firm,  which  was  bound,  above  all  things, 
to  fulfil  its  promises  and  keep  to  the  letter  as  well  as  the 
spirit  of  its  engagements.  There  was  no  boasting;  there 
was  no  exaggeration ;  there  were  no  appeals  to  passion ; 
no  romantic  rousings  of  sentimental  emotion.  The  system 
of  the  agitation  was  as  clear,  straightforward,  and  busi- 
ness-like as  its  purpose.  In  Ireland  there  were  monster 
meetings,  with  all  manner  of  dramatic  and  theatric  effects 
— with  rhetorical  exaggeration,  and  vehement  appeal  to 
passion  and  to  ancient  memory  of  suffering.  The  cause 
was  kept  up  from  day  to  day  by  assurances  of  near  success 
so  positive  that  it  is  sometimes  hard  to  believe  those  who 
made  them  could  themselves  have  been  deceived  by  them. 
No  doubt  the  difference  will  be  described  by  many  as  the 
mere  result  of  the  difference  between  the  one  cause  and  the 
other ;  between  the  agitation  for  Free-trade,  clear,  tangi- 
ble, and  practical,  and  that  for  repeal  of  the  Union,  with 
its  shadowy  object  and  its  visionary  impulses.  But  a  bet- 
ter explanation  of  the  difference  will  be  found  in  the  differ- 
ent natures  to  which  an  appeal  had  to  be  made.  It  is  not 
by  any  means  certain  that  O'Connell's  cause  was  a  mere 
shadow ;  nor  will  it  appear,  if  we  study  the  criticism  of 
the  time,  that  the  guides  of  public  opinion  who  pronounced 
the  repeal  agitation  absurd  and  ludicrous  had  any  better 
words  at  first  for  the  movement  against  the  Corn-law. 
Cobden  and  Bright  on  the  one  side,  O'Connell  on  the 
other,  knew  the  audiences  they  had  to  address.  It  would 
have  been  impossible  to  stir  the  blood  of  the  Lancashire 
artisan  by  means  of  the  appeals  which  went  to  the  very 
heart  of  the  dreamy,  sentimental,  impassioned  Celt  of  the 
South  of  Ireland.  The  Munster  peasant  would  have 
understood  little  of  such  clear,  penetrating,  business-like 
argument  as  that  by  which  Col  den  and  Bright  enforced 
their  doctrines.  Had  O'Connell's  cause  been  as  practical 
and  its  success  been  as  immediately  attainable  as  that  of 
the  Anti-Corn-Law  League,  the  great  Irish  agitator  would 


Free-Trade  and  the  League, 


269 


ere  some 
1  things, 
^11  as  the 
g;  there 
passion ; 
e  system 
nd  busi- 
monster 
c  effects 
ppeal  to 
e  cause 

success 
ose  who 
y  them, 
y  as  the 
and  the 
,  tangi. 
m,  with 
t  a  bet- 
I  diflfer- 
t  is  not 
a  mere 
ism  of 
aunced 

better 
-n-law. 
)n  the 

would 

ashire 
B  very 

of  the 

have 

s-like 

breed 

ctical 

lat  of 

\rould 


still  have  had  to  address  his  followers  in  a  different  tone 
of  appeal.  "All  men  are  not  alike,"  says  the  Norman 
butler  to  the  Flemish  soldier  in  Scott's  "Betrothed;" 
"  that  which  will  but  warm  your  Flemish  hearts  will  put 
wildfire  into  Norman  brains ;  and  what  may  only  encour- 
age your  countrymen  to  man  the  walls,  will  make  ours  fly 
over  the  battlements. "  The  most  impassioned  Celt,  how- 
ever, will  admit  that  in  the  Anti-Corn-law  movement  of 
Cobden  and  Bright,  with  its  rigid  truthfulness  and  its 
strict  proportion  between  capacity  and  promise,  there  was 
an  entirely  new  dignity  lent  to  popular  agitation  which 
raised  it  to  the  condition  of  statesmanship  in  the  rough. 
The  Reform  agitation  in  England  had  not  been  conducted 
without  some  exaggeration,  much  appeal  to  passion,  and 
some  not  by  many  means  indistinct  allusions  to  the  reserve 
of  popular  force  which  might  be  called  into  action  if 
legislators  and  peers  proved  insensible  to  argument.  The 
era  of  the  Anti-Com-law  movement  was  a  new  epoch  alto- 
gether in  English  political  controversy. 

The  League,  however,  successful  as  it  might  be  through- 
out the  country,  had  its  great  work  to  do  in  Parliament. 
The  Free-trade  leaders  must  have  found  their  hearts  sink 
within  them  when  they  came  sometimes  to  confront  that 
fortress  of  traditions  and  of  vested  rights.  Even  after  the 
change  made  in  favor  of  manufacturing  and  middle-class 
interests  by  the  Reform  Bill,  the  House  of  Commons  was 
still  composed,  as  to  nine-tenths  of  its  whole  number,  by 
representatives  of  the  landlords.  The  entire  House  of 
Lords  then  was  constituted  of  the  owners  of  land.  All 
tradition,  all  prestige,  all  the  dignity  of  aristocratic  insti- 
tutions, seemed  to  be  naturally  arrayed  against  the  new 
movement,  conducted  as  it  was  by  manufacturers  and 
traders  for  the  benefit,  seemingly,  of  trade  and  those 
whom  it  employed.  The  artisan  population,  who  might 
have  been  formidable  as  a  disturbing  element,  were,  on 
the  whole,  rather  against  the  Free-traders  than  for  them. 
Nearly  all  the  great  official  leaders  had  to  be  converted  to 


270 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


v..y. 


m- 


m 


im 


the  doctrines  of  Free-trade.  Many  of  the  Whigs  were 
willing  enough  to  admit  the  case  of  Free-trade  as  the 
young  Scotch  lady  mentioned  by  Sydney  Smith  admitted 
the  case  of  love,  "in  the  abstract;"  but  they  could  not 
recognize  the  possibility  of  applying  it  in  the  complicated 
financial  conditions  of  an  artificial  system  like  ours.  Some 
of  the  Whigs  were  in  favor  of  a  fixed  duty  in  place  of  the 
existing  sliding-scale.  The  leaders  of  the  movement  had, 
indeed,  to  resist  a  very  dangerous  temptation  coming  from 
statesmen  who  professed  to  be  in  accordance  with  them  as 
to  the  mere  principle  of  protection,  but  who  were  always 
endeavoring  to  persuade  them  that  they  had  better  accept 
any  decent  compromise,  and  not  push  their  demands  to  ex- 
tremes. The  witty  peer  who  in  a  former  generation 
answered  an  advocate  of  moderate  reform  by  asking  him 
what  he  thought  of  moderate  chastity,  might  have  had 
many  opportunities,  if  he  had  been  engaged  in  the  Free- 
trade  movement,  of  turning  his  epigram  to  account. 

Mr.  Macaulay,  for  instance,  wrote  to  the  electors  of 
Edinburgh  to  remonstrate  with  them  on  what  he  consid- 
ered their  fanatical  and  uncompromising  adherence  to  the 
principle  of  Free-trade.  "  In  my  opinion,"  Mr.  Macaulay 
wrote  to  his  constituents,  "  you  are  all  wrong — not  because 
you  think  all  protection  bad,  for  I  think  so  too;  not  even 
because  you  avow  your  opinion  and  attempt  to  propagate 
it,  for  I  have  always  done  the  same,  and  shall  do  the 
same ;  but  because,  being  in  a  situation  where  your  only 
hope  is  in  a  compromise,  you  refuse  to  hear  of  comprom- 
ise ;  because,  being  in  a  situation  where  every  person  who 
will  go  a  step  with  you  on  the  right  road  ought  to  be 
cordially  welcomed,  you  drive  from  you  those  who  are 
willing  and  desirous  to  go  with  you  half-way.  To  this 
policy  I  will  be  no  party.  I  will  not  abandon  those  with 
whom  I  have  hitherto  acted,  and  without  whose  help  I 
am  confident  that  no  great  improvement  can  be  effected, 
for  an  object  purely  selfish."  It  had  not  occurred  to  Mr. 
Macaulay  that  any  party  but  the  Whigs  could  bring  in  any 


Free-Trade  and  the  League. 


371 


measure  of  fiscal  or  other  reform  worth  the  having ;  and, 
indeed,  he  probably  thought  it  would  be  something  like 
an  act  of  ingratitude  amounting  to  a  species  of  sacrilege 
to  accept  reform  from  any  hands  but  those  of  its  recog- 
nized Whig  patrons.  The  Anti -Corn-law  agitation  intro- 
duced a  game  of  politics  into  England  which  astonished 
and  considerably  discomfited  steady-going  politicians  like 
Macaulay.  The  League  men  did  not  profess  to  be  bound 
by  any  indefeasible  bond  of  allegiance  to  the  Whig  party. 
They  were  prepared  to  co-operate  with  any  party  whatever 
which  would  undertake  to  abolish  the  Corn-laws.  Their 
agitation  would  have  done  some  good  in  this  way,  if  in 
no  other  sense.  It  introduced  a  more  robust  and  inde- 
pendent spirit  into  political  life.  It  is  almost  ludicrous 
sometimes  to  read  the  diatribes  of  supporters  of  Lord 
Melbourne's  Government,  for  example,  against  any  one 
who  should  presume  to  think  that  any  object  in  the  mind 
of  a  true  patriot,  or  at  least  of  a  true  Liberal,  could  equal 
in  importance  that  of  keeping  the  Melbourne  Ministry  in 
power.  Great  reforms  have  been  made  by  Conservative 
governments  in  our  own  days,  because  the  new  political 
temper  which  was  growing  up  in  England  refused  to  affirm 
that  the  patent  of  reform  rested  in  the  possession  of  any 
particular  party,  and  that  if  the  holders  of  the  monopoly 
did  not  find  it  convenient  or  were  not  in  the  humor  to 
use  it  any  further  just  then,  no  one  else  must  venture  to 
interfere  in  the  matter,  or  to  undertake  the  duty  which 
they  had  declined  to  perform.  At  the  time  that  Macaulay 
wrote  his  letter,  however,  it  had  not  entered  into  the  mind 
of  any  Whig  to  believe  it  possible  that  the  repeal  of  the 
Corn-laws  was  to  be  the  work  of  a  great  Conservative 
minister,  done  at  the  bidding  of  two  Radical  politicians. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League 
were  not  in  the  least  discouraged  by  the  accession  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel  to  power.  To  them  the  fixed  duty  proposed 
by  Lord  John  Russell  was  as  objectionable  as  Peel's  slid- 
ing-scale.     Their  hopes  seem  rather  to  have  gone  up  than 


2^2 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


vm  ■   ! 


l\  *■ , 


-ft 


gone  down  when  the  minister  came  into  power  whose  ad- 
herents, unlike  those  of  Lord  John  Russell,  were  absolutely 
against  the  very  principle  of  Free-trade.  It  is  of  some 
importance,  in  estimating  the  morality  of  the  course  pur- 
sued by  Peel,  to  observe  the  opinion  formed  of  his  profes- 
sions and  his  probable  purposes  by  the  shrewd  men  who 
led  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League.  The  grand  charge  against 
Peel  is  that  he  betrayed  his  party ;  that  he  induced  them 
to  continue  their  allegiance  to  him  on  the  premise  that  he 
would  never  concede  the  principle  of  Free-trade ;  and  that 
he  used  his  power  to  establish  Free-trade  when  the  time 
came  to  choose  between  it  and  a  surrender  of  office.  Now 
it  is  certain  that  the  League  always  regarded  Sir  Robert 
Peel  as  a  Free-trader  in  heart;  as  one  who  fully  admitted 
the  principle  of  Free-trade,  but  who  did  not  see  his  way 
just  then  to  deprive  the  agricultural  interest  of  the  protec- 
tion on  which  they  had  for  so  many  years  been  allowed 
and  encouraged  to  lean.  In  the  debate  after  the  general 
election  of  1841 — the  debate  which  turned  out  the  Mel- 
bourne Ministry — Mr.  Cobden,  then  for  the  first  time  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  said:  "I  am  a  Free- 
trader; I  call  myself  neither  Whig  nor  Tory.  I  am  proud 
to  acknowledge  the  virtue  of  the  Whig  Ministry  in  com- 
ing out  from  the  ranks  of  the  monopolists  and  advancing 
three  parts  out  of  four  in  my  own  direction.  Yet  if  the 
right  honorable  baronet  opposite  (Sir  R.  Peel)  advances 
one  step  farther,  I  will  be  the  first  to  meet  him  half-way 
and  shake  hands  with  him."  Some  years  later  Mr.  Cob- 
den said,  at  Birmingham,  "There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Sir  Robert  Peel  is  at  heart  as  good  a  Free-trader  as  I  am. 
He  has  told  us  so  in  the  House  of  Commons  again  and 
again ;  nor  do  I  doubt  that  Sir  Robert  Peel  has  in  his  in- 
most heart  the  desire  to  be  the  man  who  shall  carry  out 
the  principles  of  Free-trade  in  this  country. "  Sir  Robert 
Peel  had,  indeed,  as  Mr.  Cobden  said,  again  and  again  in 
Parliament  expressed  his  conviction  as  to  the  general  truth 
of  the  principles  of  Free-trade.    In  1842,  he  declared  it  to 


Free-Trade  and  the  League. 


2^} 


be  utterly  beyond  the  power  of  Parliament,  and  a  mere 
delusion,  to  say  that  by  any  duty,  fixed  or  otherwise,  a 
certain  price  could  be  guaranteed  to  the  producer.  In  the 
same  year  he  expressed  his  belief  that  "  on  the  general 
principle  of  Free-trade  there  is  now  no  great  difference  of 
opinion,  and  that  all  agree  in  the  general  rule  thrt  we 
should  buy  in  the  cheapest  and  sell  in  the  dearest  market. " 
This  expression  c '  opinion  called  forth  an  ironical  cheer 
from  the  benches  of  opposition.  Peel  knew  well  what  the 
cheer  was  meant  to  convey.  He  knew  it  meant  to  ask  him 
why,  then,  he  did  not  allow  the  country  to  buy  its  grain 
in  the  cheapest  market.  He  promptly  added — "  I  know 
the  meaning  of  that  cheer.  I  do  not  wish  to  raise  a  dis- 
cussion on  the  Corn-laws  or  the  Sugar  Duties,  which  I 
contend,  however,  are  exceptions  to  the  general  rule,  and 
I  will  not  go  into  that  question  now."  The  press  of  the 
day,  whether  for  or  against  Peel,  commented  upon  his 
declarations  and  his  measures  as  indicating  clearly  that 
the  bent  of  his  mind  was  toward  Free-trade  even  in  grain. 
At  all  events,  he  had  reached  that  mental  condition  when 
he  regarded  the  case  of  grain,  like  that  of  sugar,  as  a  nec- 
essary exception,  for  the  time,  to  the  operation  of  a  gen- 
eral rule. 

It  ought  to  have  been  obvious  that  if  exceptional  circum- 
stances should  arise,  pulling  more  strongly  in  the  direction 
of  the  League,  Sir  Robert  Peel's  own  explicit  declara- 
tions must  bind  him  to  recognize  the  necessity  of  applying 
the  Free-trade  principles  even  to  com.  "  Sir  Robert  Peel, " 
says  his  cousin,  Sir  Laurence  Peel,  in  a  sketch  of  the  life 
and  character  of  the  great  statesman,  "  had  been,  as  I  have 
said,  always  a  Free-trader.  The  questions  to  which  he 
had  declined  to  apply  those  principles  had  been  viewed  by 
him  as  exceptional.  The  Corn-law  had  been  so  treated  by 
many  able  exponents  of  the  principles  of  Free-trade."  Sir 
Robert  Peel  himself  has  left  it  on  record  that  during  the 
discussions  on  the  Corn-law  of  1842  he  was  more  than  once 
pressed  to  give  a  guarantee,  "  so  far  as  a  minister  could 
Vol.  I.— 18 


374 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


m  'ir- ' 

i'i-. ,, 

M\ 

*■»■•■„           1 

give  it,"  that  the  amount  of  protection  established  by  that 
law  should  be  permanently  adhered  to;  "but  although  I 
did  not  then  contemplat  >  the  necessity  for  further  change, 
I  uniformly  refused  to  fitter  the  discretion  of  the  Govern- 
ment by  any  such  assv  ranees  as  those  that  were  required 
of  me."  It  is  evident  that  the  condition  of  Sir  Robert 
Peel's  opinions  was,  even  as  far  back  as  1842,  something 
very  different  indeed  from  that  of  the  ordinary  county 
member  or  pledged  Protectionist,  and  that  Peel  had  done 
all  he  could  to  make  this  clear  to  his  party.  A  minister 
who,  in  1842,  refused  to  fetter  the  discretion  of  his  Gov- 
ernment in  dealing  with  the  protection  of  home-grown 
grain  ought  not,  on  the  face  of  things,  to  be  accused  of 
violating  his  pledges  and  betraying  his  party  if,  four  years 
later,  under  the  pressure  of  extraordinary  circumstances, 
he  made  up  his  mind  to  the  abolition  of  such  a  protection. 
Let  us  test  this  in  a  manner  that  will  be  familiar  to  our 
own  time.  Suppose  a  Prime-minister  is  pressed  by  some 
of  his  own  party  to  give  the  House  of  Commons  a  guaran- 
tee, "so  far  as  a  minister  could  give  it,"  that  the  principle 
of  the  State  Church  Establishment  in  England  shall  be  per- 
manently adhered  to.  He  declines  to  fetter  the  discretion 
of  the  Government  in  the  future.  Is  it  not  evident  that 
such  an  answer  would  be  taken  by  nine  out  of  ten  of  his 
listeners  to  be  ominous  of  some  change  to  the  Established 
Church?  If  four  years  after  the  same  minister  were  to 
propose  to  disestablish  the  Church,  he  might  be  denounced 
and  he  might  even  be  execrated,  but  no  one  could  fairly 
accuse  him  of  having  violated  his  pledge  and  betrayed  his 
party. 

The  country  party,  however,  did  not  understand  Sir 
Robert  Peel  as  their  opponents  and  his  assuredly  under- 
stood him.  They  did  not  at  this  time  believe  in  the  pos- 
sibility of  any  change.  Free-trade  was  to  them  little  more 
than  an  abstraction.  They  did  not  much  care  who  preached 
it  out  of  Parliament.  They  were  convinced  that  the  state 
of  things  they  saw  around  them  when  they  were  boys 


Free-Trade  and  the  League, 


375 


would  continue  to  the  end.  They  looked  on  Mr.  Villiers 
and  his  annual  motion  in  favor  of  Free-trade  very  much 
as  a  stout  old  Tory  of  later  times  might  regard  the  annual 
motion  for  woman  suffrage.  Both  parties  in  the  House- 
that  is  to  say,  both  of  the  parties  from  whom  ministers 
were  taken — alike  set  themselves  against  the  introduction 
of  any  such  measure.  The  supporters  of  it  were,  with  one 
exception,  not  men  of  family  and  rank.  It  was  agitated 
for  a  good  deal  out-of-doors,  but  agitation  had  not  up  to 
that  tir-'*i  succeeded  in  making  much  way  even  with  a  re- 
formed Parliament.  The  country  party  observed  that 
some  men  among  the  two  leading  sets  went  farther  in 
favor  of  the  abstract  principle  than  others:  but  it  did  not 
seem  to  them  that  that  really  affected  the  practical  ques- 
tion very  much.  In  1842  Mr.  Disraeli  himself  was  one  of 
those  who  stood  up  for  the  Free-trade  principle,  and  in- 
sisted that  it  had  been  rather  the  inherited  principle  of 
the  Conservatives  than  of  the  Whigs.  Country  gentlemen 
did  not,  therefore,  gpreatly  concern  themselves  about  the 
practical  work  doing  in  Manchester,  or  the  professions  of 
abstract  opinion  so  often  made  in  Parliament.  They  did 
not  see  that  the  mind  of  their  leader  was  avowedly  in  a 
progressive  condition  on  the  subject  of  Free-trade.  Be- 
cause they  could  not  bring  themselves  to  question  for  a 
moment  the  principle  of  protection  for  home-grown  grain, 
they  made  up  their  minds  that  it  was  a  principle  as  sacred 
with  him.  Against  that  conviction  no  evidence  could  re- 
vail.  It  was  with  them  a  point  of  conscience  and  honor ;  it 
would  have  seemed  an  insult  to  their  leader  to  believe 
even  his  own  words,  if  these  seemed  to  say  that  it  was  a 
mere  question  of  expediency,  convenience,  and  time  with 
him. 

Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better  if  Sir  Robert  Peel  had 
devoted  himself  more  directly  to  what  Mr.  Disraeli  after- 
ward called  educating  his  party.  Perhaps  if  he  had  made  it 
part  of  his  duty  as  a  leader  to  prepare  the  minds  of  his  fol- 
lowers for  the  fact  that  protection  for  grain,  having  ceased 


f  ■ 


2'j6 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


ir 


■;■ 


^t' 


to  be  tenable  as  an  economic  principle,  would  possibly  some 
day  have  to  be  given  up  as  a  practice,  he  might  have  taken 
his  party  along  with  him.  He  might  have  been  able  to 
show  them,  as  the  events  have  shown  them  since,  that  the 
introduction  of  free  com  would  be  a  blessing  to  the  popula- 
tion of  England  in  general,  and  would  do  nothing  but 
good  for  the  landed  interest  as  well.  The  influence  of 
Peel  at  that  time,  and  indeed  all  through  his  administra- 
tion up  to  the  introduction  of  his  Free-trade  measures,  was 
limitless,  so  far  as  his  party  were  concerned.  He  could 
have  done  anything  with  them.  Indeed,  we  find  no  evi- 
dence so  clear  to  prove  that  Peel  had  not  in  1843  made  up 
his  mind  to  the  introduction  of  Free-trade  as  the  fact  that 
he  did  not  at  once  begin  to  educate  his  party  tc  it.  This 
is  to  be  regretted.  The  measure  might  have  been  passed 
by  common  accord.  There  is  something  not  altogether 
without  pathetic  influence  in  the  thought  of  that  country 
party  whom  Peel  had  led  so  long,  and  who  adored  him  so 
thoroughl> ,  turning  away  from  him  and  against  him,  and 
mournfully  seeking  another  leader.  There  is  something 
pathetic  in  the  thought  that,  rightly  or  wrongly,  they 
should  have  believed  themselves  betrayed  by  their  chief. 
But  Peel,  to  begin  with,  was  a  reserved,  cold,  somewhat 
awkward  man.  He  was  not  effusive ;  he  did  not  pour  out 
his  emotions  and  reveal  all  his  changes  of  opinion  in  bursts 
of  confidence  even  to  his  habitual  associates.  He  brooded 
over  these  things  in  his  own  mind ;  he  gave  such  expres- 
sion to  them  in  open  debate  as  any  passing  occasion 
seemed  strictly  to  call  for;  and  he  assumed,  perhaps,  that 
the  gradual  changes  operating  in  his  views  when  thus  ex- 
pressed were  understood  by  his  followers.  Above  all,  it 
is  probable  that  Peel  himself  did  not  see  until  almost  the 
last  moment  that  the  time  had  actually  come  when  the 
principle  of  protection  must  give  way  to  other  and  more 
weighty  claims.  In  his  speech  announcing  his  intended 
legislation  in  1846,  Sir  Robert  Peel,  with  a  proud  frank- 
ness which  was  characteristic  of  him,  denied  that  his 


Free-Trade  and  the  Leagu$. 


rn 


tibly  some 
ave  taken 
n  able  to 
,  that  the 
lepopula- 
hing  but 
luence  of 
ministra- 
ures,  was 
fie  could 

1  no  evi- 
made  up 
fact  that 
it.  This 
n  passed 
together 

country 
d  him  so 
lim,  and 
mething 
ly,  they 
ir  chief, 
•mewhat 
pour  out 
n  bursts 
brooded 

expres- 
)ccasion 
ps,  that 
:hus  ex- 

2  all,  it 
lost  the 
len  the 
d  more 
itended 

frank- 
lat  his 


altered  course  of  action  was  due  exclusively  to  the  failure 
of  the  potato  crop  and  the  dread  of  famine  in  Ireland.  "  I 
will  not,"  he  said,  "withhold  the  homage  which  is  due  to 
the  progress  of  reason  and  of  truth  by  denying  that  my 
opinions  on  the  subject  of  Protection  have  undergone  a 
change.  ...  I  will  not  direct  the  course  of  the  vessel  by 
observations  taken  in  1843."  But  it  is  probable  that  if  the 
Irish  famine  had  not  threatened,  the  moment  for  introduc- 
ing the  new  legislation  might  have  been  indefinitely  post- 
poned. The  prospects  of  the  Anti-Com-Law  League  did 
not  look  by  any  means  bright  when  the  session  preceding 
the  introduction  of  the  Free-trade  legislation  came  to  an 
end.  The  number  of  votes  that  the  League  could  count 
on  in  Parliament  did  not  much  exceed  that  which  the  ad- 
vocates of  Home  Rule  have  been  able  to  reckon  up  in  our 
day.  Nothing  in  1843  or  in  the  earlier  part  of  1845  pointed 
to  any  immediate  necessity  for  Sir  Robert  Peel's  testing 
the  progress  of  his  own  convictions  by  reducing  them  into 
the  shape  of  practical  action.  It  is,  therefore,  not  hard  to 
understand  how  even  a  far-seeing  and  conscientious  states- 
man, busy  with  the  practical  work  of  each  day,  might  have 
put  off  taking  definite  counsel  with  himself  as  to  the  in- 
troduction of  measures  for  which  just  then  there  seemed 
no  special  necessity,  and  which  could  hardly  be  introduced 
without  bitter  controversy. 


tV 


CHAPTER  XV. 


.Mil! 


y"  V^ 


m 


.!.;•■  ,   \ 


FAMINE  FORCES  PEEL  S  HAND. 

We  see  how  the  two  great  parties  of  the  State  stood  with 
regard  to  this  question  of  Free-trade.     The  Whigs  were 
steadily  gravitating  toward  it.     Their  leaders  did  not  quite 
see  their  way  to  accept  it  as  a  principle  of  practical  states- 
manship, but  it  was  evident  that  their  acceptance  of  it  was 
only  a  question  of  time,  and  of  no  long  time.     The  leader 
of  the  Tory  party  was  being  drawn  day  by  day  more  in  the 
same  direction.     Both  leaders,  Russell  and  Peel,  had  gone 
as  fai  as  to  admit  the  general  principle  of  Free-trade. 
Peel  had  contended  that  grain  was,  in  England,  a  neces- 
sary exception ;  Russell  was  not  of  opinion  that  the  time 
had  come  when  it  could  be  treated  otherwise  than  as  an 
exception.     The  Free-trade  party,  small,  indeed,  in  its 
Parliamentary  force,  but  daily  growing  more  and  more 
powerful  with  the  country,  would  take  nothing  from  either 
leader  but  Free-trade  sans  phrase ;  and  would  take  that 
from  either  leader  without  regard  to  partisan  considera- 
tions.    It  is  evident  to  any  one  who  knows  anything  of  the 
working  of  our  system  of  government  by  party,  that  this 
must  soon  have  ended  in  one  or  other  of  the  two  great 
ruling  parties  forming  an  alliance  with  the  Free-traders. 
If  unforeseen  events  had  not  interposed,  it  is  probable  that 
conviction  would  first  have  fastened  on  the  minds  of  the 
Whigs,  and  that  they  would  have  had  the  honor  of  abolish- 
ing the  Corn-laws.     They  were  out  of  office,  and  did  not 
seem  likely  to  get  back  soon  to  it  by  their  own  power,  and 
the  Free-trade  party  would  have  come  in  time  to  be  a  very 
desirable  ally.     It  would  be  idle  to  pretend  to  doubt  that 
the  convictions  of  political  parties  are  hastened  on  a  good 


I 


Rt  Hon.  JOHN   BRIGHT,  M.P. 


,i    I 


y'iU 


Famine  Forces  Peel's  Hand. 


279 


deal  under  our  system  by  the  yearning  of  those  who  are 
out  of  office  to  get  the  better  of  those  who  are  in.  States- 
men in  England  are  converted  as  Henry  of  Navarre  became 
Catholic :  we  do  not  say  that  they  actually  change  their 
opinions  for  the  sake  of  making  themselves  eligible  for 
power,  but  a  change  which  has  betn  growing  up  imper- 
ceptibly, and  whicii  might  otherwise  have  taken  a  long 
time  to  declare  itself,  is  stimulated  thus  to  confess  itself 
and  come  out  into  the  light.  But  in  the  case  of  the  Anti- 
Corn-law  agitation,  an  event  over  which  political  parties 
had  no  control  intervened  to  spur  the  intent  of  the  Prime- 
minister.  Mr.  Bright,  many  years  after,  when  pronounc- 
ing the  eulogy  of  his  dead  friend  Cobden,  described  what 
happened  in  a  fine  sentence :  "  Famine  itself,  against  which 
we  had  waired,  joined  us."  In  the  autumn  of  1845  the 
potato  rot  began  in  Ireland. 

The  vast  majority  of  the  working  population  of  Ireland 
were  known  to  depend  absolutely  on  the  potato  for  sub- 
sistence. In  the  northern  province,  where  the  population 
were  of  Scotch  extraction,  the  oatmeal,  the  brose  of  their 
ancestors,  still  supplied  the  staple  of  their  food ;  but  in  the 
southern  and  western  provinces  a  large  proportion  of  the 
peasantry  actually  lived  on  the  potato,  and  the  potato 
alone.  In  these  districts  whole  generations  grew  up, 
lived,  married,  and  passed  away,  without  having  ever 
tasted  flesh  meat.  It  was  evident,  then,  that  a  failure  in 
the  potato  crop  would  be  equivalent  to  famine.  Many  of 
the  laboring  class  received  little  or  no  money  wages.  They 
lived  on  what  was  called  the  "  cottier  tenant  system ;"  that 
is  to  say,  a  man  worked  for  a  land-owner  on  condition  of 
getting  the  use  of  a  little  scrap  of  land  for  himself  on 
which  to  grow  potatoes  to  be  the  sole  food  of  himself  and 
his  family.  The  news  came,  in  the  autumn  of  1845,  that 
the  long  continuance  of  sunless  wet  and  cold  had  im- 
periled, if  not  already  destroyed,  the  food  of  a  people. 

The  cabinet  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  held  hasty  meetings 
closely  following  each  other.     People  began  to  ask  whether 


t1]  I'l 


.r* 


■L.^« 


\i 


2SO 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


Parliament  was  about  to  be  called  together,  and  whether 
the  Government  had  resolved  on  a  bold  policy.  The  Anti- 
Com-Law  League  were  clamoring  for  the  opening  of  the 
ports.  The  Prime-minister  himself  was  strongly  in  favor 
of  iiuch  a  course.  He  urged  upon  his  colleagues  that  all 
restrictions  upon  the  importation  of  foreign  corn  should  be 
suspended  either  by  an  Order  in  Council,  or  by  calling 
Parliament  together  and  recommending  such  a  measure 
from  the  throne.  It  is  now  known  that  in  offering  this 
advice  to  his  colleagues  Peel  accompanied  it  with  the  ex- 
pression of  a  doubt  as  to  whether  it  would  ever  be  possible 
to  restore  the  restrictions  that  had  once  been  suspended. 
Indeed,  this  doubt  must  have  filled  every  mind.  The 
League  were  openly  declaring  that  one  reason  why  they 
called  for  the  opening  of  the  ports  was  that,  once  opened, 
they  never  could  be  closed  again.  The  doubt  was  enough 
for  some  of  the  colleagues  of  Sir  Robert  Peel.  It  seems 
marvellous  now  how  responsible  statesmen  could  struggle 
for  the  retention  of  restrictions  which  were  so  unpopular 
and  indefensible  that  if  they  were  once  suspended,  under 
the  pressure  of  no  matter  what  exceptional  necessity,  they 
never  could  be  reimposed.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  and 
Lord  Stanley,  however,  opposed  the  idea  of  opening  the 
ports,  and  the  proposal  fell  through.  The  Cabinet  merely 
resolved  on  appointing  a  commission,  cor^usting  of  the 
heads  of  departments  in  Ireland,  to  take  some  steps  to 
guard  against  a  sudden  outbreak  of  famine,  and  the  thought 
of  an  autumnal  session  was  abandoned.  Sir  Robert  Peel 
himself  has  thus  tersely  described  the  manner  in  which 
his  proposals  were  received :  "  The  cabinet  by  a  very  con- 
siderable majority  declined  giving  its  assent  to  the  pro- 
posals which  I  thus  made  to  them.  They  were  supported 
by  only  three  members  of  the  cabinet — the  Earl  of  Aber- 
deen, Sir  James  Graham,  and  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert.  The 
other  members  of  the  cabinet,  some  on  the  ground  of  ob- 
jection to  the  principle  of  the  measures  recommended, 
others  upon  the  ground  that  there  was  not  yet  sufficient 


Famine  Forces  Peel's  Hand. 


281 


whether 
he  Anti- 
gr  of  the 
in  favor 
that  all 
lould  be 
calling 
measure 
■ing  this 
the  ex- 
possible 
pended. 
.     The 
hy  they 
3pened, 
enough 
t  seems 
truggle 
popular 
,  under 
y*  they 
on  and 
ig  the 
nerely 
of  the 
sps  to 
ought 

Peel 
ivhich 
T  con- 

pro- 

:>rted 
^ber- 

The 
f  ob- 
ided, 
:ient 


evidence  of  the  necessity  for  them,  withheld  their  sanc- 
tion." 

The  great  cry  all  through  Ireland  was  for  the  opening 
of  the  ports.  The  Mansion  House  Relief  Committee  of 
Dublin  issued  a  series  of  resolutions  declaring  their  con- 
viction, from  the  most  undeniable  evidence,  that  consider- 
ably more  than  one-third  of  the  entire  potato  crop  in  Ire- 
land had  been  already  destroyed  by  the  disease,  and  that 
the  disease  had  not  ceased  its  ravages,  but  on  the  contrary 
was  daily  expanding  more  and  more.  "No  reasonable 
conjecture  can  be  formed,"  the  resolutions  went  on  to 
state,  "  with  respect  to  the  limit  of  its  effects  short  of  the 
destruction  of  the  entire  remaining  crop ;"  and  the  docu- 
ment concluded  with  a  denunciation  of  the  ministry  for 
not  opening  the  ports  or  calling  Parliament  together  before 
the  usual  time  for  its  assembling. 

Two  or  three  days  after  the  issue  of  these  resolutions 
Lord  John  Russell  wrote  a  letter  from  Edinburgh  to  his 
constituents,  the  electors  of  the  City  of  London — a  letter 
which  is  one  of  the  historical  documents  of  the  reign.  It 
announced  his  unqualified  conversion  to  the  principles  of 
the  Anti-Corn-Law  League.  The  failure  of  the  potato  crop 
was,  of  course,  the  immediate  occasion  of  this  letter. 
"  Indecision  and  procrastination, "  Lord  John  Russell 
wrote,  "may  produce  a  state  of  suflfering  which  it  is 
frightful  to  contemplate.  ...  It  is  no  longer  worth 
while  to  contend  for  a  fixed  duty.  In  1841  the  Free-trade 
party  would  have  agreed  to  a  duty  of  8j.  per  quarter  on 
wheat,  and  after  a  lapse  of  years  this  duty  might  have 
been  further  reduced,  and  ultimately  abolished.  But  the 
imposition  of  any  duty  at  present,  without  a  provision  for 
its  extinction  within  a  short  period,  would  but  prolong  a 
contest  already  sufficiently  fruitful  of  animosity  and  dis- 
content. "  Lord  John  Russell  then  invited  a  general  un- 
derstanding, to  put  an  end  to  a  system  "  which  has  been 
proved  to  be  the  blight  of  commerce,  the  bane  of  agricul- 
ture, the  source  of  bitter  division  among  classes,  the  cause 


iiur 


aBa 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


Kii  penury,  fever,  mortality,  and  crime  among  the  people. " 
Then  the  writer  added  a  significant  remark  to  the  effect 
that  the  Government  appeared  to  be  waiting  for  some  ex- 
cuse to  give  up  the  present  Corn-law,  and  urging  the  peo- 
ple to  afford  them  all  the  excuse  they  could  desire,  "  by 
petition,  by  address,  by  remonstrance. " 

Peel  himself  has  told  us  in  his  Memoirs  what  was  the 
effect  which  this  letter  produced  upon  his  own  councils. 
It  "could  not,"  he  points  out,  "fail  to  exercise  a  very 
material  influence  on  the  public  mind,  and  on  the  subject- 
matter  of  our  deliberations  in  the  cabinet.  It  justified  the 
conclusion  that  the  Whig  party  was  prepared  to  unite  with 
the  Anti-Corn-Law  League  in  demanding  the  total  repeal 
of  the  Corn-laws. "  Peel  would  not  consent  now  to  pro- 
pose simply  an  opening  of  the  ports.  It  would  seem,  he 
thought,  a  mere  submission  to  accept  the  minimum  of  the 
terms  ordered  by  the  Whig  leader.  That  would  have  been 
well  enough  when  he  first  recommended  it  to  his  cabinet ; 
and  if  it  could  then  have  been  offered  to  the  country  as 
the  spontaneous  movement  of  a  united  ministry,  it  would 
have  been  becoming  of  the  emergency  and  of  the  men. 
But  to  do  this  now  would  be  futile ;  would  seem  like  trifling 
with  the  question.  Sir  Robert  Peel,  therefore,  recom- 
mended to  his  cabinet  an  early  meeting  of  Parliament  with 
the  view  of  bringing  forward  some  measure  equivalent  to 
a  speedy  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws. 

The  recommendation  was  wise; it  was,  indeed,  indis- 
pensable. Yet  it  is  hard  to  think  that  an  impartial  pos- 
terity will  form  a  very  lofty  estimate  of  the  wisdom  with 
which  the  counsels  of  the  two  great  English  parties  were 
guided  in  this  momentous  emergency.  Neither  Whigs 
nor  Tories  appear  to  have  formed  a  judgment  because  of 
facts  or  principles,  but  only  in  deference  to  the  political 
necessities  of  the  hour.  Sir  Robert  Peel  himself  denied 
that  it  was  the  resistless  hand  of  famine  in  Ireland  which 
had  brought  him  to  his  resolve  that  the  Corn-laws  ought  to 
be  abolished.    He  grew  into  the  conviction  that  they  were 


Famine  Forces  Peel's  Hand, 


a8^ 


people." 
the  effect 
some  ex- 

the  peo- 
sire,  "  by 

;  was  the 
councils. 
3  a  very 
!  subject- 
tified  the 
aite  with 
il  repeal 
r  to  pro- 
seem,  he 
m  of  the 
ave  been 
cabinet ; 
>untry  as 
it  would 
he  men. 
trifling 
recom- 
2nt  with 
alent  to 

indis- 

:ial  pos- 

)m  with 

es  were 

Whigs 

;ause  of 

>olitical 

denied 

which 

ught  to 

y  were 


bad  in  principle.  Lord  John  Russell  had  long  been  grow- 
ing into  the  same  conviction.  Yet  the  League  had  been 
left  to  divide  with  but  small  numbers  against  overwhelm- 
ing majorities  made  up  of  both  parties,  until  the  very  ses- 
sion before  Peel  proposed  to  repeal  the  Corn  laws.  Lord 
Beaconsfield,  indeed,  indulges  in  something  like  exaggera- 
tion when  he  says,  in  his  "  Life  of  Lord  George  Bei.tinck," 
that  the  close  of  the  session  of  1845  found  the  League 
nearly  reduced  to  silence.  But  it  is  not  untrue  that,  as  he 
says,  "  the  Manchester  confederates  seemed  to  be  least  in 
favor  with  Parliament  and  the  country  on  the  very  eve  of 
their  triumph."  "They  lost  at  the  same  time  elections 
and  the  ear  of  the  House ;  and  the  cause  of  total  and  im- 
mediate repeal  seemed  in  a  not  less  hopeless  position  than 
when,  under  circumstances  of  infinite  difficulty,  it  was  first 
and  solely  upheld  by  the  terse  eloquence  and  vivid  percep- 
tion of  Charles  Villiers."  Lord  Beaconsfield  certainly 
ought  to  know  what  cause  had  and  what  had  not  the  ear 
of  the  House  of  Commons  at  that  time ;  and  yet  we  venture 
to  doubt,  even  after  his  assurance,  whether  the  League 
and  its  speakers  had  in  any  way  found  their  hold  on  the 
attention  of  Parliament  diminishing.  But  the  loss  of 
elections  is  beyond  dispute.  It  is  a  fact  alluded  to  in  the 
very  letter  from  Lord  John  Russell  which  was  creating  so 
much  commotion.  "It  is  not  to  be  denied,"  Lord  John 
Russell  writes,  "  that  many  elections  for  cities  and  towns 
in  1841,  and  some  in  1845,  appear  to  favor  the  assertion 
that  Free-trade  is  not  popular  with  the  great  mass  of  the 
community. "  This  is,  from  whatever  cause,  a  very  com- 
mon phetomenon  in  our  political  history.  A  movement 
which  began  with  the  promise  of  sweeping  all  before  it 
seems  after  a  while  to  lose  its  force,  and  is  supposed  by 
many  observers  to  be  now  only  the  work  and  the  care  of  a 
few  earnest  and  fanatical  men.  Suddenly  it  is  taken  up 
by  a  minister  of  commanding  influence,  and  the  bore  or 
the  crotchet  of  one  Parliament  is  the  great  party  contro- 
versy of  a  second,  and  the  accomplished  triumph  of  a  third. 


284 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


,1  :■  i 


5^    '>l 


^irl 


M.M.\ 


;1 


In  this  instance  it  is  beyond  dispute  that  the  League  seemed 
to  be  somewhat  losing  in  strength  and  influence  just  on  the 
eve  of  its  complete  triumph.  He  must,  indeed,  be  the 
very  optimist  of  Parliamentary  government  who  upholds 
the  manner  of  Free-trade's  final  adoption  as  absolutely 
satisfactory,  and  as  reflecting  nothing  but  credit  upon  the 
counsels  of  our  two  great  political  parties.  Such  a  well- 
contented  personage  might  be  fairly  asked  to  explain  why 
a  system  of  protective  taxation,  beginning  to  be  regarded 
by  all  thoughtful  statesmen  as  bad  in  itself,  should  never 
be  examined  with  a  view  to  its  repeal  until  the  force  of  a 
great  emergency  and  the  rival  biddings  of  party  leaders 
came  to  render  its  repeal  inevitable.  The  Corn-laws,  as 
all  the  world  now  admits,  were  a  cruel  burden  to  the  poor 
and  the  working-class  of  England.  They  were  justly  de- 
scribed by  Lord  John  Russell  as  "  the  blight  of  commerce, 
the  bane  of  agriculture,  the  source  of  bitter  division  among 
classes;  the  cause  of  penury,  fever,  mortality,  and  crime 
among  the  people. "  All  this  was  independent  of  the  sud- 
den and  ephemeral  calamity  of  the  potato  rot,  which  at 
the  time  when  Lord  John  Russell  wrote  that  letter  did  not 
threaten  to  become  nearly  so  fatal  as  it  afterward  proved 
to  be.  One  cannot  help  asking  how  long  would  the  Corn- 
laws  have  been  suficered  thus  to  blight  commerce  and 
agriculture,  to  cause  division  among  classes,  and  to  pro- 
duce penury,  mortality,  and  crime  among  the  people,  if 
the  potato  rot  in  Ireland  had  not  rendered  it  necessary  to 
do  something  without  delay? 

The  potato  rot,  however,  inspired  the  writing  of  Lord 
John  Russell's  letter,  and  Lord  John  Russell's  letter  in- 
spired Sir  Robert  Peel  with  the  conviction  that  something 
must  be  done.  Most  of  his  colleagues  were  inclined  to  go 
with  him  this  time.  A  cabinet  council  was  held  on  No- 
vember 25th,  almost  immediately  after  the  publication  of 
Lord  John  Russell's  letter.  At  that  council  Sir  Robert  Peel 
recommended  the  summoning  of  Parliament  with  a  view 
to  instant  measures  to  combat  the  famine  in  Ireland,  but 


Famine  Forces  Peel's  Hand. 


t  seemed 
1st  on  the 
,  be  the 
upholds 
)solutely 
upon  the 
1  a  well- 
lain  why 
•egarded 
Id  never 
)rce  of  a 
^  leaders 
laws,  as 
the  poor 
istly  de- 
nmerce, 
n  among 
d  crime 
the  sud- 
^hich  at 
[  did  not 
proved 
le  Corn- 
rce  and 
to  pro- 
ople,  if 
ssary  to 

>f  Lord 
ter  in- 
lething 
d  to  go 
on  No- 
ition  of 
irt  Peel 
a  view 
id,  but 


a8$ 


with  a  view  also  to  some  announcement  of  legislation  in- 
tended to  pave  the  way  for  the  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws. 
Lord  Stanley  still  hesitated,  and  asked  time  to  consider 
his  decision.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  was  unchanged  in 
his  private  opinion  that  the  Corn-laws  ought  to  be  main- 
tained; but  he  declared  with  a  blunt  simplicity  that  his 
only  object  in  public  life  was  "  to  support  Sir  Robert  Peel's 
administration  of  the  Government  for  the  Queen."  "A 
good  government  for  the  country,"  said  the  sturdy  and 
simple  old  hero,  "  is  more  important  than  Corn-laws  or 
any  other  consideration."  One  may  smile  at  this  notion 
of  a  good  government  without  reference  to  the  quality  of  the 
legislation  it  introduces;  it  reminds  one  a  little  of  the 
celebrated  study  of  history  without  reference  to  time  or 
place.  But  the  Duke  acted  strictly  up  to  his  principles  of 
duty,  and  he  declared  that  if  Sir  Robert  Peel  considered 
the  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws  to  be  not  right  or  necessary  for 
the  welfare  of  England,  but  requisite  for  the  maintenance 
of  Sir  Robert  Peel's  position  "in  Parliament  and  m  the 
public  view,"  he  should  thoroughly  support  the  proposal. 
Lord  Stanley,  however,  was  not  to  be  changed  in  the  end. 
He  took  time  to  consider,  and  seems  really  to  have  tried 
his  best  to  persuade  himself  that  he  could  fall  in  with  the 
new  position  which  the  Premier  had  assumed.  Meanwhile 
the  most  excited  condition  of  public  feeling  prevailed 
throughout  London  and  the  country  generally.  The 
Times  newspaper  came  out  on  December  4th  with  the  an- 
nouncement that  the  ministry  had  made  up  it  ?  mind,  and 
that  the  Royal  speech  at  the  commencement  of  the  session 
would  recommend  an  immediate  consideration  of  the  Corn- 
laws  preparatory  to  their  total  repeal.  It  would  be  hardly 
possible  to  exaggerate  the  excitement  caused  by  this  star- 
tling piece  of  news.  It  was  indignantly  and  in  unqualified 
terms  declared  a  falsehood  by  the  ministerial  prints.  Long 
arguments  were  gone  into  to  prove  that  even  if  the  fact 
announced  were  true  it  could  not  possibly  have  been  known 
to  the  I'imes,     In  Disraeli's  "Coningsby"  Mr.  Rigby  gives 


!    M 


Ml,    I 


1*H  ! 


.'»•    K 


i  :^?'' 


■  M 


;-!r«    I. 


386 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


the  clearest  and  most  convincing  reasons  to  prove,  first, 
that  Lord  Spencer  could  not  be  dead,  as  report  said  he 
was ;  and  next,  that  even  if  he  were  dead,  the  fact  could 
not  possibly  be  known  to  those  who  took  on  themselves  to 
announce  it.  He  is  hardly  silenced  even  by  the  assurance 
of  a  great  duke  that  he  is  one  of  Lord  Spencer's  executors, 
and  that  Lord  Spencer  is  certainly  dead.  So  the  announce- 
ment in  the  Times  was  fiercely  ^nd  pedantically  argued 
against.  "  It  can't  be  true;"  "the  Tmes  could  not  get  to 
know  of  it;"  "it  must  be  a  cabinet  secret  if  it  were  true;" 
"  nobody  outside  the  cabinet  could  possibly  know  of  it ;" 
"  if  any  one  outside  the  cabinet  could  get  to  know  of  it,  it 
would  not  be  the  Times;"  it  would  be  this,  that  or  the 
other  person  or  journal ;  and  so  forth.  Long  after  it  had 
been  made  certain,  beyond  even  Mr.  Rigby's  power  of  dis- 
putation, that  the  announcement  was  true  so  far  as  the  re- 
solve of  the  Prime-minister  was  concerned,  people  con- 
tinued to  argue  and  controvert  as  to  the  manner  in  which 
the  Times  became  possessed  of  the  secret.  The  general 
conclusion  come  to  among  the  knowing  was  that  the  blan- 
iishments  of  a  gifted  and  beautiful  lady  with  a  dash  of 
political  intrigue  in  her  had  somehow  extorted  the  secret 
from  a  young  and  handsome  member  of  the  cabinet,  and 
that  she  had  communicated  it  to  the  Times.  It  is  not  im- 
possible that  this  may  have  been  the  .rue  explanation. 
It  was  believed  in  by  a  great  many  persons  who  might 
have  been  in  a  position  to  judge  of  the  probabilities.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  were  surely  signs  and  tokens  enough 
by  which  a  shrewd  politician  might  have  guessed  what 
was  to  come  without  any  intervention  of  petticoat  diplo- 
macy. It  seems  odd  now  that  people  should  then  have 
distressed  themselves  so  much  by  conjectures  as  to  the 
source  of  the  information  when  once  it  was  made  certain 
that  the  information  itself  was  substantially  true.  This  it 
undoubtedly  was,  although  it  did  not  tell  all  the  truth,  and 
could  not  foretell.  For  there  was  an  ordeal  yet  to  be  gone 
through  before  the  Prime-minister  could  put  his  plans 


Famine  Forces  Peel's  Hand. 


387 


rove,  first, 
rt  said  he 
tact  could 
nselves  to 
assurance 
executors, 
announce- 
ly  argued 
not  get  to 
ere  tnie ;" 
3W  of  it ;" 
w  of  it,  it 
at  or  the 
ter  it  had 
irer  of  dis- 
as  the  re- 
ople  con- 
in  which 
B  general 
the  blan- 
i  dash  of 
le  secret 
inet,  and 
s  not  im- 
anation. 
10  might 
ies.     On 
3  enough 
ed  what 
it  diplo- 
en  have 
to  the 
certain 
This  it 
uth,  and 
be  gone 
s  plans 


into  operation.  On  December  4th  the  Times  made  the  an- 
nouncement. On  the  6th,  having  been  passionately  con- 
tradicted, it  repeated  the  assertion.  "  We  adhere  to  our 
original  announcement  that  Parliament  will  meet  early  in 
January,  and  that  a  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws  will  be  pro- 
posed in  one  house  by  Sir  R.  Peel,  and  in  the  other  by  the 
Duke  of  Wellington. "  But,  in  the  mean  time,  the  opposi- 
tion in  the  cabinet  had  proved  itself  unmanageable.  Lord 
Stanley  and  the  Duke  of  Biiccleuch  intimated  to  the  Prime- 
minister  that  they  could  not  be  parties  to  any  measure  in- 
volving the  ultimate  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws.  Sir  Robert 
Peel  did  not  believe  that  he  could  carry  out  his  project 
satisfactorily  under  such  circumstances,  and  he  therefore 
hastened  to  tender  his  resignation  to  the  Queen.  "  The 
other  members  of  the  cabinet,  without  exception,  I  be- 
lieve"— these  are  Sir  Robert  Peel's  own  words — "con- 
curred in  this  opinion ;  and  under  these  circumstances  I 
considered  it  to  be  my  duty  to  tender  my  resignation  to  her 
Majesty.  On  the  5th  of  December  I  repaired  to  Osborne, 
Isle  of  Wight,  and  humbly  solicited  her  Majesty  to  relieve 
me  from  duties  which  I  felt  I  could  no  longer  discharge 
with  advantage  to  her  Majesty's  service."  The  very  day 
after  the  Times  made  its  famous  announcement,  the  very 
day  before  the  Times  repeated  it,  the  Prime-minister  who 
was  to  propose  the  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws  went  out  of 
office. 

Quem  dixere  chaos !  Apparently  chaos  had  come  again. 
Lord  John  Russell  was  sent  for  from  Edinburgh.  His 
letter  had,  without  any  such  purpose  on  his  part,  written 
him  up  as  the  man  to  take  Sir  Robert  Peel's  place.  Lord 
John  Russell  came  to  London,  and  did  his  best  to  cope 
with  the  many  difficulties  of  the  situation.  His  party 
were  not  very  strong  in  the  country,  and  they  had  not  a 
majority  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  very  naturally 
endeavored  to  obtain  from  Peel  a  pledge  that  he  would 
support  the  immediate  and  complete  repeal  of  the  Corn- 
laws.     Peel,  writing  to  the  Queen,  **  humbly  expresses  his 


I 


A 


'4    ■ 

i!;.    HI 

I                       } 

',}' 


»f 


288 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


regret  that  he  does  not  feel  it  to  be  consistent  with  his 
duty  to  enter  upon  the  consideration  of  this  important 
question  in  Parliament  fettered  by  a  previous  engagement 
of  the  nature  of  that  required  of  him."  The  position  of 
Lord  John  Russell  was  awkward.  He  had  been  forced 
into  it  because  one  or  two  of  Sir  Robert  Peel's  colleagues 
would  not  consent  to  adopt  the  policy  of  their  chief.  But 
the  very  fact  of  so  stubborn  an  opposition  from  a  man  of 
Lord  Stanley's  influence  showed  clearly  enough  that  the 
passing  of  Free-trade  measures  was  not  to  be  effected  with- 
out stem  resistance  from  the  country  party.  The  whole 
risk  and  burden  had  seemingly  been  thrown  on  Lord  John 
Russell ;  and  now  Sir  Robert  Peel  would  not  even  pledge 
himself  to  unconditional  support  of  the  very  policy  which 
was  understood  to  be  his  own.  I^ord  John  Russell  showed, 
even  then,  his  characteristic  courage.  He  resolved  to  form 
a  ministry  without  a  Parliamentary  majority.  He  was 
not,  however,  fated  to  try  the  ordeal.  Lord  Grey,  who 
was  a  few  months  before  Lord  Howick,  and  who  had  just 
succeeded  to  the  title  of  his  father  (the  stately  Charles 
Earl  Grey,  the  pupil  of  Fox,  and  chief  of  the  cabinet  which 
passed  the  Reform  Bill  and  abolished  slavery) — Lord  Grey 
felt  a  strong  objection  to  the  foreign  policy  of  Lord  Palm- 
erston,  and  these  two  could  i-ot  get  on  in  one  ministry, 
as  it  was  part  of  Lord  John  Ru^  ^ll's  plan  that  they  should 
do.  Lord  Grey  also  was  strongly  of  opinion  that  a  seat  in 
the  cabinet  ought  to  be  offered  to  Mr.  Cobden ;  but  other 
great  Whigs  could  not  bring  themselves  to  any  larger  sac- 
rifice to  justice  and  common  sense  than  a  suggestion  that 
the  office  of  Vice-president  of  the  Board  of  Trade  should 
be  tendered  to  the  leader  of  the  Free-trade  movement. 
Mr.  Macaulay  describes  the  events  in  a  letter  to  the  Edin- 
burgh Chamber  of  Commerce.  "  All  our  plans  were  frus- 
trated by  Lord  Grey,  who  objected  to  Lord  Palmersto" 
being  Foreign  Secretary.  I  hope  that  the  public  interests 
will  not  suffer.  Sir  Robert  Peel  must  now  undertake  the 
settlement  of  the  question.     It  is  certain  that  he  can  settle 


Famine  Forres  Peel's  Hand. 


289 


/; 


t  with  his 
important 
gageiuent 
tosition  of 
!en  forced 
:ollcagues 
lief.  But 
a  man  of 

I  that  the 
cted  with- 
'he  whole 
Lord  John 
en  pledge 
licy  which 

II  showed, 
ed  to  form 

He  was 
jrey,  who 
3  had  just 
y  Charles 
net  which 
ord  Grey 
»rd  Palm- 
ministry, 
ey  should 
a  seat  in 
Dut  other 
irger  sac- 
tion  that 
should 
ovement. 
he  Edin- 
rere  frus- 
Imersto" 
interests 
take  the 
an  settle 


e 


it.  It  is  by  no  means  certain  thet  we  could  have  done  so. 
For  we  shall  to  a  man  support  him ;  and  a  large  proportion 
of  those  who  are  now  in  offic6  would  have  refused  to  sup- 
port us."  One  passage  in  Macaulay's  letter  will  be  read 
with  peculiar  interest.  "  From  the  first,"  he  says,  "  I  told 
Lord  John  Russell  that  I  stipulated  for  one  thing  only — 
total  and  immediate  repeal  of  the  Corn-laws;  that  my  ob- 
jections to  gradual  abolition  were  insurmountable;  but 
that  if  he  declared  for  total  and  immediate  repeal  I  would 
be  as  to  all  other  matters  absolutely  in  his  hands ;  that  I 
would  take  any  office,  or  no  office,  just  as  suited  him  best; 
and  that  he  should  never  be  disturbed  by  any  personal 
pretensions  or  jealousies  on  my  part. "  No  one  can  doubt 
Macaulay's  sincerity  and  singleness  of  purpose.  But  it  is 
surprising  to  note  the  change  that  the  agitation  of  little 
more  than  two  years  has  made  in  his  opinions  on  the  sub- 
ject of  a  policy  of  immediate  and  unconditional  abolition. 
In  February,  1843,  he  was  pointing  out  to  the  electors  of 
Edinburgh  the  unwisdom  of  refusing  a  compromise,  and 
in  December,  1845,  he  is  writing  to  Edinburgh  to  say  that 
th'^  one  only  thing  for  which  he  must  stipulate  was  total 
and  immediate  repeal.  The  Anti-Corn-Law  League  might 
well  be  satisfied  with  the  propagandist  work  they  had  done. 
The  League  itself  looked  on  very  composedly  during  these 
little  altercations  and  embarrassments  of  parties.  They 
knew  well  enough  now  that  let  who  would  take  power,  he 
must  carry  out  their  policy.  At  a  meeting  of  the  League, 
which  was  held  in  Covent  Garden  Theatre  on  the  17th  of 
this  memorable  month,  and  while  the  negotations  were 
still  going  on,  Mr.  Cobden  declared  that  he  and  his  friends 
had  not  striven  to  keep  one  party  in  or  another  out  of 
office.  "  We  have  worked  with  but  one  principle  and  one 
object  in  view ;  and  if  we  maintain  that  principle  for  but 
six  months  more,  we  shall  attain  to  that  state  which  I  have 
so  long  and  so  anxiously  desired,  when  the  League  shall 
be  dissolved  into  its  primitive  elements  by  the  triumph  of 
its  principles. " 
Vol.  I.— 19 


m; 


mir 


290 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


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Lord  John  Russell  found  it  impossible  to  form  a  minis- 
try. He  signified  his  failure  to  the  Queen.  Probably, 
having  done  the  best  he  could,  he  was  not  particularly 
distressed  to  find  that  his  efforts  were  ineffectual.  The 
Queen  had  to  send  for  Sir  Robert  Peel  to  Windsor,  and 
tell  him  that  she  must  require  him  to  withdraw  his  resig- 
nation and  to  remain  in  her  service.  Sir  Robert  of  course 
could  only  comply.  The  Queen  offered  to  give  him  some 
time  to  enter  into  communication  with  his  colleagues,  but 
Sir  Robert  very  wisely  thought  that  he  could  speak  with 
much  greater  authority  if  he  were  to  invite  them  to  sup- 
port him  in  an  effort  on  which  he  was  determined,  and 
which  he  had  positively  undertaken  to  make.  He,  there- 
fore, returned  from  Windsor  on  the  eveni'ig  of  December 
20th,  "  having  resumed  all  the  functions  of  First  Minister 
of  the  Crown."  The  Duke  of  Buccleuch  withdrew  his 
opposition  to  the  policy  which  Peel  was  now  to  carry  out; 
but  Lord  Stanley  remained  firm.  The  place  of  the  latter 
was  taken  as  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies  by  Mr. 
Gladstone,  who,  however,  curiously  enough  remained 
without  a  seat  in  Parliament  during  the  eventful  session 
that  was  now  to  come.  Mr.  Gladstone  had  sat  for  the 
borough  of  Newark,  but  that  borough  being  under  the 
influence  of  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  who  had  withdrawn 
his  support  from  the  ministry,  he  did  not  invite  re-election, 
but  remained  without  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons  for 
some  months.  Sir  Robert  Peel  then,  to  use  his  own  words 
in  a  letter  to  the  Princess  de  Lieven,  resumed  power 
with  greater  means  of  rendering  public  service  than  I 
should  have  had  if  I  had  not  relinquished  it. "  He  felt, 
he  said,  "like  a  man  restored  to  life  after  his  funeral 
service  had  been  preached. " 

Parliament  was  summoned  to  meet  in  January.  In  the 
mean  time  it  was  easily  seen  how  the  Protectionists  and 
the  Tories  of  the  extreme  order  generally  would  regard 
the  proposals  of  Sir  Robert  Peel.  Protectionist  meetings 
were  held  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  and  they  were 


Famine  Forces  Peel's  Hand. 


291 


all  but  unanimous  in  condemning  by  anticipation  the  policy 
of  the  restored  Premier.  Resolutions  were  passed  at  many 
of  these  meetings  expressing  an  equal  disbelief  in  the 
Prime-minister  and  in  the  famine.  The  utmost  indigna- 
tion was  expressed  at  the  idea  of  there  being  any  famine 
in  prospect  which  could  cause  any  departure  from  the 
principles  which  secured  to  the  farmers  a  certain  fixed 
price  for  their  grain,  or  at  least  prevented  the  price  from 
falling  below  what  they  considered  a  paying  amount.  Not 
less  absurd  than  the  protestations  that  there  would  be  no 
famine  were  some  of  the  remedies  which  were  suggested 
for  it  if  it  should  insist  on  coming  in.  The  Duke  of  Nor- 
folk of  that  time  made  himself  particularly  conspicuous 
by  a  beneficent  suggestion  which  he  offered  to  a  distressed 
population.  He  went  about  recommending  a  curry  powder 
of  his  own  device  as  a  charm  against  hunger. 

Parliament  met.  The  opening  day  was  January  2 2d, 
1846.  The  Queen  in  person  opened  the  session,  and  the 
speech  from  the  throne  said  a  good  deal  about  the  condi- 
tion of  Ireland  and  the  failure  of  the  potato  crop.  The 
speech  contained  one  significant  sentence.  "  I  have  had," 
her  Majesty  was  made  to  say,  "great  satisfaction  in  giving 
my  assent  to  the  measures  which  you  have  presented  to 
me  from  time  to  time,  calculated  to  extend  commerce  and 
to  stimulate  domestic  skill  and  industr)'',  by  the  repeal  of 
prohibitive  and  the  relaxation  of  protective  duties.  I 
recommend  you  to  take  into  your  early  consideration 
whether  the  principle  on  which  you  have  acted  may  not 
with  advantage  be  yet  more  extensively  applied. "  Before 
the  address  in  reply  to  the  speech  from  the  throne  was 
moved,  Sir  Robert  Peel  gave  notice  of  the  intention  of  the 
Government  on  the  earliest  possible  day  to  submit  to  the 
consideration  of  the  House  measures  connected  with  the 
commercial  and  financial  affairs  of  the  country. 

There  are  few  scenes  more  animated  and  exciting  than 
that  presented  by  the  House  of  Commons  on  some  night 
when  a  great  debate  is  expected,  or  when  some  momentous 


292 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


'if 


ilM'     •': 


'/:5' 


announcement  is  to  be  made,  A  common  thrill  seems 
to  tremble  all  through  the  assembly,  as  a  breath  of  wind 
runs  across  the  sea.  The  House  appears  for  the  moment 
to  be  one  body,  pervaded  by  one  expectation.  The  minis- 
terial benches,  the  front  benches  of  opposition,  are  occupied 
by  the  men  of  political  renown  and  of  historic  name.  The 
benches  everywhere  else  are  crowded  to  their  utmost 
capacity.  Members  who  cannot  get  seats — on  such  an 
occasion  a  goodly  number — stand  below  the  bar  or  have  to 
dispose  themselves  along  the  side  galleries.  The  celebri- 
ties are  not  confined  to  the  Treasury  benches  or  those  of 
the  leaders  of  opposition.  Here  and  there,  among  the 
independent  members  and  below  the  gangway  on  both 
sides,  are  seen  men  of  influence  and  renown.  At  the 
opening  of  Parliament  in  1846  this  was  especially  to  be 
observed.  The  rising  fame  of  the  Free-trade  leaders 
made  them  almost  like  a  third  great  party  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  strangers'  gallery,  the  Speaker's  gal- 
lery, on  such  a  night  are  crowded  to  excess.  The  eye 
surveys  the  whole  House  and  sees  no  vacant  place.  In 
the  very  hum  of  conversation  that  runs  along  the  benches 
there  is  a  tone  of  profound  anxiety.  The  minister  who 
has  to  face  that  House  and  make  the  announcement  for 
which  all  are  waiting  in  a  most  feverish  anxiety  is  a  man 
to  be  envied  by  the  ambitious.  This  time  there  was  a 
curiosity  about  everything.  What  was  the  minister  about 
to  announce?  When  and  in  what  fashion  would  he  an- 
nounce it?  Would  the  Whig  leaders  speak  before  the 
ministerial  announcement?  Would  the  Free-traders?  What 
voice  would  first  hint  to  the  expectant  Commons  the 
course  which  political  events  were  destined  to  take?  The 
moving  of  an  address  to  the  throne  is  always  a  formal 
piece  of  business.  It  would  be  hardly  possible  for  Cicero 
or  Burke  to  be  very  interesting  when  performing  such  a 
task.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  an  excellent  chance  for  a 
young  beginner.  He  finds  the  House  in  a  sort  of  con- 
temptuously indulgent  mood,  prepared  to  welcome  the 


Famine  Forces  Peel's  Hand. 


293 


11  seems 

jf  wind 

moment 

B  minis- 

>ccupied 

e.     The 

utmost 

such  an 

have  to 

celebri- 

those  of 

ong  the 

on  both 

At    the 

ly  to  be 

leaders 

e  House 

it's  gal- 

rhe  eye 

ice.     In 

benches 

Iter  who 

nent  for 

s  a  man 

e  was  a 

r  about 

he  an- 

ore  the 

s?  What 

3ns  the 

?    The 

formal 

Cicero 

such  a 

}e  for  a 

of  con- 

ime  the 


slightest  evidence  of  any  capacity  of  speech  above  the  dull- 
est mediocrity.  He  can  hardly  say  anything  absurd  or 
offensive  unless  he  goes  absolutely  out  of  his  way  to  make 
a  fool  of  himself;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  he  can  easily 
say  his  little  nothings  in  a  graceful  way,  and  receive 
grateful  applause,  accordingly,  from  an  assembly  which 
counts  on  being  bored,  and  feels  doubly  indebted  to  the 
speaker  who  is  even  in  the  slightest  degree  an  agreeable 
disappointment.  On  this  particular  occasion,  however, 
the  duty  of  the  proposer  and  seconder  of  the  address  was 
made  specially  trying  by  the  fact  that  they  had  to  interfere 
with  merely  formal  utterances  between  an  eager  House 
and  an  exciting  announcement.  A  certain  piquancy  was 
lent,  however,  to  the  performance  of  the  duty  by  the  fact, 
which  the  speeches  made  evident  beyond  the  possibility 
of  mistake,  that  the  proposer  of  the  address  knew  quite 
well  what  the  Government  were  about  to  do,  and  that  the 
seconder  knew  nothing  whatever. 

Now  the  formal  task  is  done.  The  address  has  been 
moved  and  seconded.  The  Speaker  puts  the  question  that 
the  address  be  adopted.  Now  is  the  time  for  debate,  if 
debate  there  is  to  be.  On  such  occasions  there  is  always 
somt  discussion,  but  it  is  commonly  as  mere  a  piece  of 
formality  as  the  address  itself.  It  is  understood  that  the 
leader  of  opposition  will  say  something  meaning  next  to 
nothing ;  that  two  or  three  men  will  grumble  vaguely  at 
the  ministry ;  that  the  leader  of  the  House  will  reply ;  and 
then  the  affair  is  all  over.  But  on  this  occasion  it  was 
certain  that  some  momentous  announcement  would  have 
to  be  made ;  and  the  question  was  when  it  would  come. 
Perhaps  no  one  expected  exactly  what  did  happen. 
Nothing  can  be  more  unusual  than  for  the  leader  of  the 
House  to  open  the  debate  on  such  an  occasion ;  and  Sir 
Robert  Peel  was  usually  somewhat  of  a  formalist,  who 
kept  to  the  regular  ways  in  all  that  pertained  to  the  busi- 
ness of  the  House.  No  eyes  of  expectation  were  turned, 
therefore,  to  the  ministerial  bench  at  the  moment  after 


294 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Time',, 


%' 


the  formal  putting  of  the  question  by  the  Speaker.  It  was 
rather  expected  that  I<ord  John  Russell,  or  perhaps  Mr. 
Cobden,  would  rise.  But  a  surprised  murmur  running 
through  all  parts  of  the  House  soon  told  those  who  could 
not  see  the  Treasury  bench  that  something  unusual  had 
happened;  and  in  a  moment  the  voice  of  the  Prime-min- 
ister was  heard — that  marvellous  voice  of  which  Lord 
Beaconsfield  says  that  it  had  not  in  his  time  any  equal 
in  the  House,  "unless  we  except  the  thrilling  tones  of 
O'Connell" — and  it  was  known  that  the  great  explanation 
was  coming  at  once. 

The  explanation  even  now,  however,  was  somewhat 
deferred.  The  Prime-minister  showed  a  deliberate  in- 
tention, it  might  have  been  thought,  not  to  come  to  the 
point  at  once.  He  went  into  long  and  labored  explana- 
tions of  the  manner  in  which  his  mind  had  been  brought 
into  a  change  on  the  subject  of  Free-trade  and  Protection; 
and  he  gave  exhaustive  calculations  to  show  that  the  re- 
duction of  duty  was  constantly  followed  by  expansion  of 
the  revenue,  and  even  a  maintenance  of  high  prices.  The 
duties  on  glass,  the  duties  on  flax,  the  prices  of  salt  pork 
and  domestic  lard,  the  contract  price  of  salt  beef  for  the 
navy — these  and  many  other  such  topics  were  discussed  at 
great  length  and  with  elaborate  fulness  of  detail  in  the 
hearing  of  an  eager  House,  anxious  only,  for  that  night,  to 
know  whether  or  not  the  minister  meant  to  introduce  the 
principle  of  Free-trade.  Peel,  however,  made  it  clear 
enough  that  he  had  become  a  complete  convert  to  the 
doctrines  of  the  Manchester  school,  and  that,  in  his  opin- 
ion, the  time  had  come  when  that  protection  which  he  had 
taken  office  to  maintain  must  forever  be  abandoned.  One 
sentence  at  the  close  of  his  speech  was  made  the  occasion 
of  much  labored  criticism  and  some  severe  accusation. 
It  was  that  in  which  Peel  declared  that  he  found  it  "no 
easy  task  to  insure  the  harmonious  and  united  action  of 
an  ancient  monarchy,  a  proud  aristocracy,  and  a  reformed 
House  of  Commons." 


^    M 


Famine  Forces  Peel's  Hand. 


295 


The  explanation  was  over.  The  House  of  Commons 
were  left  rather  to  infer  than  to  understand  what  the  Gov- 
ernment proposed  to  do.  Lord  John  Russell  entered  into 
some  personal  explanations  relating  to  his  endeavor  to 
form  a  ministry,  and  the  causes  of  its  failure.  These  have 
not  much  interest  for  a  later  time.  It  might  have  seemed 
that  the  work  of  the  night  was  done.  It  was  evident  that 
the  ministerial  policy  could  not  be  discussed  then ;  for,  in 
fact,  it  had  no:  been  announced.  The  House  knew  that  the 
Prime-minister  was  a  convert  to  the  principles  oi  Free- 
trade  ;  but  that  was  all  that  any  one  could  be  said  to  know 
except  those  who  were  in  the  secrets  of  the  cabinet.  There 
appeared,  therefore,  nothing  for  it  but  to  wait  until  the 
time  should  come  for  the  formal  announcement  and  the 
full  discussion  of  the  Government  measures.  Suddenly, 
however,  a  new  and  striking  figure  intervened  in  the 
languishing  debate,  and  filled  the  House  of  Commons  with 
a  fresh  life.  There  is  not  often  to  be  found  in  our  Parlia- 
mentary history  an  example  like  this  of  a  sudden  turn 
given  to  a  whole  career  by  a  timely  speech.  The  member 
who  rose  to  comment  on  the  explanation  of  Sir  Robert 
Peel  had  been  for  many  years  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
This  was  his  tenth  session.  He  had  spoken  oft'^n  in  each 
session.  He  had  made  many  bold  attempts  to  win  a  name 
in  Parliament,  and  hitherto  his  political  career  had  been 
simply  a  failure.  From  the  hour  when  he  spoke  this 
speech  it  was  one  long,  unbroken,  brilliant  success. 


K 


■'■^    ;!  .; 


■J. 


U:U 


[■it   :' 

■f:'S 


mm' 


CHi^.PTEr.  XVI. 


MR.    DISRAELI. 


The  speaker  who  rose  into  such  sudden  prominence  and 
something  like  the  position  of  a  party  leader  was  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  men  the  politics  of  the  reign  have  pro- 
duced. Perhaps,  if  the  word  remarkable  were  to  be  used 
in  its  most  strict  sense,  and  without  particular  reference 
to  praise,  it  would  be  just  to  describe  him  as  emphatically 
the  most  remarkable  man  that  the  political  controversies 
of  the  present  reign  have  called  into  power.  Mr.  Disraeli 
entered  the  House  of  Commons  as  Conservative  member 
for  Maidstone  in  1837.  He  was  then  about  thirty-two 
years  of  age.  He  had  previously  made  repeated  and  un- 
successful attempts  to  get  a  seat  in  Parliament.  He  began 
his  political  career  as  an  advanced  Liberal,  and  had  come 
cut  under  the  auspices  of  Daniel  O'Connell  and  Joseph 
Hume.  He  had  described  himself  as  one  who  desired  to 
hght  the  battle  of  the  people,  and  who  was  supported  by 
neither  of  the  aristocratic  parties.  He  failed  again  and 
again,  and  apparently  he  begat?  to  think  that  it  would  be 
a  wiser  thing  to  look  for  the  support  of  one  or  other  of  the 
aristocratic  parties.  He  had  before  this  given  indications 
of  remarkable  literary  talent,  if  indeed  it  might  not  be 
called  genius.  His  novel,  "  Vivian  Grey, "  published  when 
he  was  in  his  twenty-third  year,  was  suffused  with  extrav- 
agance, affectation,  and  mere  animal  spirits;  but  it  was 
full  of  the  evidences  of  a  fresh  and  brilliant  ability.  The 
son  of  a  distinguished  literary  man,  Mr.  Disraeli  had 
probably  at  that  time  only  a  j^oung  literary  man's  notions 
of  politics.  It  is  not  necessary  to  charge  him  with  delib- 
erate inconsistency  because  from  having  been  a  Radical 


Mr.  Disraeli, 


^7 


of  the  mosc  advanced  views  he  became  by  an  easy  leap  a 
romantic  Tory.     It  is  not  likely  that  at  the  beginning  of 
his  career  he  had  any  very  clear  ideas  in  connection  with 
the  words  Tory  or  Radical.     He  wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  W.  J. 
Fox,  already  described  as  an  eminent  Unitarian  minister 
and  rising  politician,  in  which  he  declared  that  his  forte 
was  sedition.     Most  clever  young  men  who  are  not  bom 
to  fortune,  and  who  feel  drawn  into  political  life,  fancy 
too  that  their  forte  is  sedition.     When  young  Disraeli 
found  that  sedition  and  even         ^nced  Radicalism  did  not 
do  much  to  get  him  into  Parliament  he  probably  began  to 
ask  himself  whether  his  Liberal  convictions  were  so  deeply 
rooted  as  to  call  for  the  sacrifice  of  a  career.     He  thought 
the  question  over,  and  doubtless  found  himself  crystalliz- 
ing fast  into  an  advocate  of  the  established  order  of  things. 
In  a  purely  personal  light  this  was  a  fortunate  conclusion 
for  the  ambitious  young  politician.     He  could  not  then 
have  anticipated  the  extraordinary  change  which  was  to 
be  wrought  in  the  destiny  and  the  composition  of  the  Tory 
party  by  the  eloquence,  the  arguments,  and  the  influence 
of  two  men  who  at  that  time  were  almost  absolutely  un- 
known. Mr.  Cobden  stood  for  the  first  time  as  a  candidate 
for  a  seat  in  Parliament  in  the  year  that  saw  Mr.  Disraeli 
elected  for  the  first  time,  and  Mr.  Cobden  was  unsuccess- 
ful.    Cobden  had  to  wait  four  yeiii.   before  he  found  his 
way  into  the  House  of  Commons;  Bright  did  not  become 
a  member  of  Parliament  until  some  two  years  later  still. 
It  was,  however,  the  Anti-Com-law  agitation  which,  by 
conquering  Peel  and  making  him  its  advocate,  brought 
about  the  memorable  split  in  the  Conservative  party,  and 
carried  away  from  the  cause  of  the  country  squires  nearly 
all  the  men  of  talent  who  had  hitherto  been  with  them. 
A  new  or  middle  party  of  so-called  Peelites  was  formed. 
Graham,  Gladstone,  Sidney  Herbert,  Cardwell,  and  other 
men  of  equal  mark  or  promise,  joined  it,  and  the  country 
party  was  left  to  seek  for  leadership  in  the  earnest  spirit 
and  very  moderate  talents  of  Lord  George  Bentinck.     Mr. 


298 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


V»  '"!, 


i     H 


i 


Jii 


'i  '\i\ 


Disraeli  then  found  his  chance.  His  genius  was  such  that 
it  must  have  made  a  way  for  him  anywhere  and  in  spite 
of  any  competition ;  but  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  his 
career  of  political  advancement  might  have  been  very 
different  if,  in  place  of  finding  himself  the  only  man  of 
first-class  ability  in  the  party  to  which  he  had  attached 
himself,  he  had  been  a  member  of  a  party  which  had 
Palmerston  and  Russell  and  Gladstone  and  Graham  for 
its  captains,  and  Cobden  and  Bright  for  its  habitual  sup- 
porters. 

This,  however,  could  not  have  been  in  Mr.  Disraeli's 
thoughts  when  he  changed  from  Radicalism  to  Conserva- 
tism. No  trace  of  the  progress  of  conversion  can  be  found 
in  his  speeches  or  his  writings.  It  is  not  unreasonable 
to  infer  that  he  took  up  Radicalism  at  the  beginning  be- 
cause it  looked  the  most  picturesque  and  romantic  thing 
to  do,  and  that  only  as  he  found  it  fail  to  answer  his  per- 
sonal object  did  it  occur  to  him  that  he  had,  after  all,  more 
affinity  with  the  cause  of  the  country  gentlemen.  The 
reputation  he  had  made  for  himself  before  his  going  into 
Parliament  was  of  a  nature  rather  calculated  to  retard 
than  to  advance  a  political  career.  He  was  looked  upon 
almost  universally  as  an  eccentric  and  audacious  adven- 
turer, who  was  kept  from  being  dangerous  by  the  affecta- 
tions and  absurdities  of  his  conduct.  He  dressed  in  the 
extremest  style  of  preposterous  foppery;  he  talked  a 
blending  of  cynicism  and  sentiment;  he  had  made  the 
most  reckless  statements;  his  boasting  was  almost  out- 
rageous ;  his  rhetoric  of  abuse  was,  even  in  that  free-spoken 
time,  astonishingly  vigorous  and  unrestrained.  Even  his 
literary  efforts  did  not  then  receive  anything  like  the 
appreciation  they  have  obtained  since.  At  that  time  they 
were  regarded  rather  as  audacious  whimsicalities,  the 
fantastic  freaks  of  a  clever  youth,  than  as  genuine  works 
of  a  certain  kind  of  art.  Even  when  he  did  get  into  the 
House  of  Commons,  his  first  experience  there  was  little 
calculated  to  give  him  much  hope  of  success.     Reading 


Mr.  Disraeli. 


W 


over  his  first  speech  now,  it  seems  hard  to  understand  why 
it  should  have  excited  so  much  laughter  and  derision; 
why  it  should  have  called  forth  nothing  but  laughter  and 
derision.     It  is  a  clever  speech,  full  of  point  and  odd  con- 
ceits ;  very  like  in  style  and  structure  many  of  the  speeches 
which  in  later  years  won  for  the  same  orator  the  applause 
of  the  House  of  Commons.     But  Mr.  Disraeli's  reputation 
had  preceded  him  into  the  House.     Up  to  this  time  his 
life  had  been,  says  an  unfriendly  but  not  an  unjust  critic, 
"  an  almost  uninterrupted  career  of  follies  and  defeats. " 
The  House  was  probably  in  a  humor  to  find  the  speech 
ridiculous  because  the  general  impression  was  that  the 
man  himself  was  ridiculous.     Mr.  Disraeli's  appearance, 
too,  no  doubt,  contributed  something  to  the  contemptuous 
opinion  which  was  formed  of  him  on  his  first  attempt  to 
address  the  assembly  which  he  afterward  came  to  rule. 
He  is  described  by  an  observer  as  having  been  attired  "  in 
a  bottle-green  frock-coat  and  a  waistcoat  of  white,  of  the 
Dick  Swiveller  pattern,  the  front  of  which  exhibited  a  net- 
work of  glittering  chains ;  large  fa;  icy-pattern  pantaloons, 
and  a  black  tie,  above  which  no  shirt-collar  was  visible, 
completed  the  outward  man.     A  countenance  lividly  pale, 
set  out  by  a  pair  of  intensely  black  eyes,  and  a  broad  but 
not  very  high  forehead,  overhung  by  clustering  ringlets 
of  coal-black  hair,  which,  combed  away  from  the  right 
temple,  fell  in  bunches  of  well-oiled  small  ringlets  over 
his  left  cheek."    His  manner  was  intensely  theatric ;  his 
gestures  were  wild  and  extravagant.     In  all  this  there  is 
not  much,  however,  to  surprise  those  who  knew  Mr.  Dis- 
raeli in  his  greater  days.     His  style  was  always  extrava- 
gant ;  his  rhetoric  constantly  degenerated  into  vulgarity ; 
his  whole  manner  was  that  of  the  typical  foreigner  wbom 
English  people  regard  as  the  illustration  of  all  that  is 
vehement  and  unquiet.     But  whatever  the  cause,  it  is 
certain  that  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  attempt  Mr.  Dis- 
raeli made  not  merely  a  failure,   but  even  a  ludicrous 
failure.     One  who  heard  the  debate  thus  describes  the 


^00 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


'».  .  f  ■ 


,<       i- 


lull'- 


'?■»■■ 


'H 


.1 


manner  in  which,  baffled  by  the  persistent  laughter  and 
other  interruptions  of  the  noisy  House,  the  orator  with- 
drew from  the  discussion,  defeated  but  not  discouraged. 
"  At  last,  losing  his  temper,  which  until  now  he  had  pre- 
served in  a  wonderful  manner,  he  paused  in  the  midst  of 
a  sentence,  and  looking  the  Liberals  indignantly  in  the 
face,  raised  his  hands,  and,  opening  his  mouth  as  widely 
as  its  dimensions  would  admit,  said,  in  a  remarkably  loud 
and  almost  terrific  tone,  *I  have  begun,  several  times, 
many  things,  and  I  have  often  succeeded  at  last ;  ay,  sir, 
and  though  I  sit  down  now,  the  time  will  come  when  you 
will  hear  me. '  "  This  final  prediction  is  so  like  what  a 
manufacturer  of  biography  would  make  up  for  a  hero,  and 
is  so  like  what  was  actually  said  in  one  or  two  other  re- 
markable instances,  that  a  reader  might  be  excused  for 
doubting,-  its  authenticity  in  this  case.  But  nothing  can 
be  more  certain  than  the  fact  that  Mr.  Disraeli  did  bring 
to  a  close  his  maiden  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons 
with  this  bold  prediction.  The  words  are  to  be  found  in 
the  reports  published  next  morning  in  all  the  daily  papers 
of  the  metropolis. 

It  was  thus  that  Mr.  Disraeli  began  his  career  as  a 
Parliamentary  orator.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  on  that 
occasion  almost  the  only  one  of  his  hearers  who  seems  to 
have  admired  the  speech  was  Sir  Robert  Peel.  It  is  by 
his  philippic  against  Peel  that  Disraeli  is  now  about  to 
convince  the  House  of  Commons  that  the  man  they  laughed 
at  before  is  a  great  Parliamentary  orator. 

Disraeli  was  not  in  the  least  discouraged  by  his  first  fail- 
ure. A  few  days  after  it  he  spoke  again,  and  he  spoke 
three  or  four  times  more  during  his  first  session.  But 
he  had  learned  some  wisdom  by  rough  experience,  and 
he  did  not  make  his  oratorical  flights  so  long  or  so  ambi- 
tious as  that  first  attempt.  Then  he  seemed  after  a  while, 
as  he  grew  more  familiar  with  the  House,  to  go  in  for 
being  paradoxical ;  for  making  himself  always  conspicu- 
ous;  for  taking  up  positions  and  expounding  political 


I'^M 


Mr.  Disraeli. 


^i 


creeds  which  other  men  would  have  avoided.  It  is  very 
difficult  to  get  any  clear  idea  of  what  his  opinions  were 
about  this  period  of  his  career,  if  he  had  any  political 
opinions  at  all.  Our  impression  is  that  he  really  had  no 
opinions  at  that  time;  that  he  was  only  in  quest  of  opin- 
ions. He  spoke  on  subjects  of  which  it  was  evident  that 
he  knew  nothing,  and  sometimes  he  managed,  by  the 
sheer  force  of  a  strong  intelligence,  to  discern  the  absurdity 
of  economic  sophistries  which  had  baffled  men  of  far 
greater  experience,  and  which,  indeed,  to  judge  from  his 
personal  declarations  and  political  conduct  afterward,  he 
allowed  before  long  to  baffle  and  bewilder  himself.  More 
often,  however,  he  talked  with  a  grandiose  and  oracular 
vagueness  which  seemed  to  imply  that  he  alone  of  all  men 
saw  into  the  very  heart  of  the  question,  but  that  he  of  all 
men  must  not  yet  reveal  what  he  saw.  At  his  best  of 
times  Mr.  Disra^  d  was  an  example  of  that  class  of  being 
whom  Macaulay  declares  to  be  so  rare  that  Lord  Chatham 
appears  to  him  almost  a  solitary  illustration  of  it — "  a  great 
man  of  real  genius,  and  of  a  brave,  lofty,  and  commanding 
spirit,  without  simplicity  of  character."  What  Macaulay 
goes  on  to  say  of  Chatham  will  bear  quotation  too.  **  He 
was  an  actor  in  the  closet,  an  actor  at  council,  an  actor  in 
Parliament;  and  even  in  private  society  he  could  not  lay 
aside  his  theatrical  tones  and  attitudes."  Mr.  Disraeli 
was  at  one  period  of  his  career  so  affected  that  he  positively 
affected  affectation.  Yet  he  was  a  mar  of  undoubted 
genius;  he  had  a  spirit  that  never  quailed  under  stress  of 
any  circumstances,  however  disheartening ;  he  commanded 
as  scarcely  any  statesman  since  Chatham  himself  has  been 
able  to  do ;  and  it  would  be  unjust  and  absurd  to  deny 
to  a  man  gifted  with  qualities  like  these  the  possession  of 
a  lofty  nature. 

For  some  time  Mr.  Disraeli  then  seemed  resolved  to 
make  himself  remarkable — to  be  talked  about.  He  suc- 
ceeded admirably.  He  was  talked  about.  All  the  political 
and  satirical  journals  of  the  day  had  a  great  deal  to  say 


^02 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


il'.M 


about  him.  He  is  not  spoken  of  in  terms  of  praise  as  a 
rule,  neither  has  he  mucn  praise  to  shower  about  him. 
Any  one  who  looks  back  to  the  political  controversies  of 
that  time  will  be  astounded  at  the  language  which  Mr. 
Disraeli  addresses  to  his  opponents  of  the  press,  and  which 
his  opponents  address  to  him.  In  some  cases  it  is  no  ex- 
aggeration to  say  that  a  squabble  between  two  Billings- 
gate fish-women  in  our  day  would  have  good  chance  of 
ending  without  the  use  of  words  and  phrases  so  coarse  as 
those  which  then  passed  between  this  brilliant  literary 
man  and  some  of  his  assailants.  We  have  all  read  the 
history  of  the  controversy  between  him  and  O'Connell, 
and  the  aavage  ferocity  of  the  language  with  which  O'Con- 
nell denounced  him  as  "a  miscreant,"  as  a  "wretc..,"  a 
"liar,"  "whose  life  is  a  living  lie;"  and  finally,  as  "the 
heir-at-law  of  the  blasphemous  thief  who  died  impenitent 
on  the  Cross. "  Mr.  Disraeli  begins  his  reply  by  describ- 
ing himself  as  one  of  those  who  "  will  not  be  insulted  even 
by  a  Yahoo  without  chastising  it ;"  and  afterward,  in  a  let- 
ter to  one  of  Mr.  O'Connell's  sons,  declares  his  desire  to 
express  "  the  utter  scorn  in  which  I  hold  his  [Mr.  O'Con- 
nell's] character,  and  the  disgust  with  which  his  conduct 
inspires  me ;"  and  informs  the  son  that  "  I  shall  take  every 
opportunity  of  holding  your  father's  name  up  to  public 
contempt,  and  I  fervently  pray  that  you  or  some  one  of 
3'our  blood  may  attempt  to  avenge  the  inextinguishable 
hatred  with  which  I  shall  putoue  his  existence."  In  read- 
ing of  a  controversy  like  this  between  two  public  men,  we 
seem  to  be  transported  back  to  an  age  having  absolutely 
nothing  in  common  with  our  own.  It  appears  almost  im- 
possible to  believe  that  men  still  active  in  political  life 
were  active  in  political  life  then.  Yet  this  is  not  the 
most  astonishing  specimen  of  the  sort  of  controversy  in 
which  Mr.  Disraeli  became  engaged  in  his  younger  days. 
Nothing,  perhaps,  that  the  political  literature  of  the  time 
preserves  could  exceed  the  ferocity  of  his  controversial 
duel  with  O'Connell;  but  there  are  many  samples  of  the 


Mr.  Disraeli. 


y>3 


rhetoric  of  abuse  to  be  found  in  the  journals  of  the  time 
which  would  far  less  bear  exposure  to  the  gaze  of  the 
fastidious  public  of  our  day.  The  duelling  system  sur- 
vived then  and  for  long  after,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  always 
professed  himself  ready  to  sustain  with  his  pistol  anything 
that  his  lips  might  have  given  utterance  to,  even  in  the 
reckless  heat  of  controversy.  The  social  temper  which  in 
our  time  insists  that  the  first  duty  of  a  gentleman  is  to 
apologize  for  an  unjust  or  offensive  expression  used  in  de- 
bate, was  unknown  then.  Perhaps  it  could  hardly  exist  to 
any  great  extent  in  the  company  of  the  duelling  system. 
When  a  man's  withdrawal  of  an  offensive  expression  might 
be  imputed  to  a  want  of  physical  courage,  the  courtesy 
which  impels  a  gentleman  to  atone  for  a  wrong  is  not 
likely  to  triumph  very  often  over  the  fear  of  being  ac- 
counted a  coward.  If  any  one  doubts  the  superiority  of 
manners  as  well  as  of  morals  which  comes  of  our  milder 
ways,  he  has  only  to  read  a  few  specimens  of  the  contro- 
versies of  Mr.  Disraeli's  earlier  days,  when  men  who 
aspired  to  be  considered  great  political  leaders  thought  it 
not  unbecoming  to  call  names  like  a  costermonger,  and  to 
swagger  like  Bobadil  or  the  Copper  Captain. 

Mr.  Disraeli  kept  himself  well  up  to  the  level  of  his 
time  in  the  calling  of  names  and  the  swaggering;  but  he 
was  making  himself  remarkable  in  political  controversy 
as  well.  In  the  House  of  Commons  he  began  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  dangerous  adversary  in  debate.  He  was 
wonderfully  ready  with  retort  and  sarcasm.  But  during 
all  the  earlier  part  of  his  career  he  was  thought  of  only  as 
a  free  lance.  He  had  praised  Peel  when  Peel  said  some- 
thing that  suited  him,  or  when  to  praise  Peel  seemed  likely 
to  wound  some  one  else.  But  it  was  during  the  debates 
on  the  abolition  of  the  Corn-laws  that  he  first  rose  to  the 
fame  of  a  great  debater  and  a  powerful  Parliamentary  ora- 
tor. We  use  the  words  Parliamentary  orator  with  the 
purpose  of  conveying  a  special  qualification.  He  is  a  great 
Parliamentary  orator  who  can  employ  the  kind  of  eloquence 


304 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


'41': ' 


and  argument  which  tell  most  readily  on  Parliament.  But 
it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  great  Parliamentary  ora- 
tor is  necessarily  a  great  orator  in  the  wider  sense.  Some 
of  the  men  who  made  the  greatest  successes  as  Parliament- 
ary orators  have  failed  to  win  any  genuine  reputation  as 
orators  of  the  broader  and  higher  school.  The  fame  of 
Charles  Townshend's  "champagne  speech"  has  vanished, 
evanescent  almost  as  the  bubbles  from  which  it  derived 
its  inspiration  and  its  name.  No  one  now  reads  many 
even  of  the  fragments  preserved  for  us  of  those  speeches 
of  Sheridan  which  those,  who  heard  them  declared  to  have 
surpassed  all  ancient  and  modern  eloquence.  The  House 
of  Commons  often  found  Burke  dull,  and  the  speeches  of 
Burke  have  passed  into  English  literature  secure  of  a  per- 
petual place  there.  Mr.  Disraeli  never  succeeded  in  being 
more  than  a  Parliamentary  orator,  and  probably  would  not 
have  cared  to  be  anything  more.  But  even  at  this  com- 
paratively early  date,  and  while  he  had  still  the  reputation 
of  being  a  whimsical,  self-confident,  and  feather-headed 
adventurer,  he  soon  won  for  himself  the  name  of  one  who 
could  hold  his  own  in  retort  and  in  sarcasm  against  any 
antagonist.  The  days  of  the  more  elaborate  oratory  were 
going  by,  and  the  time  was  coming  when  the  pungent 
epigram,  the  sparkling  paradox,  the  rattling  attack,  the 
vivid  repartee,  would  count  for  the  most  attractive  part  of 
eloquence  with  the  House  of  Commons. 

Mr.  Disraeli  was  exactly  the  man  to  succeed  under  the 
new  conditions  of  Parliamentary  eloquence.  Hitherto 
he  had  wanted  a  cause  to  inspire  and  justify  audacit)^  and 
on  which  to  employ  with  effect  his  remarkable  resources 
of  sarcasm  and  rhetoric.  Hitherto  he  had  addressed  an 
audience  out  of  sympathy  with  him  for  the  most  part. 
Now  he  was  about  to  become  the  spokesman  of  a  large 
body  of  men  who,  chafing  and  almost  choking  with  wrath, 
were  not  capable  of  speaking  effectively  for  themselves. 
Mr.  Disraeli  did,  therefore,  the  very  wisest  thing  he  could 
do  when  he  launched  at  once  into  a  savage  personal  attack 


Mr.  Disraeli. 


305 


ler  the 
itherto 
y,  and 
ources 
sed  an 

part. 

large 
wrath, 
elves. 

could 
attack 


upon  Sir  Robert  Peel.  The  speech  abounds  in  passages 
of  audaciously  powerful  sarcasm.  "  I  am  not  one  of  the 
converts,"  Mr.  Disraeli  said.  "  I  am  perhaps  a  member  of 
a  fallen  party.  To  the  opinions  which  I  have  expressed 
in  this  House  in  favor  of  Protection  I  still  adhere.  They 
sent  me  to  this  House,  and  if  I  had  relinquished  them  I 
should  have  relinquished  my  seat  also."  That  was  the 
key-note  of  the  speech.  He  denounced  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
not  for  having  changed  his  opinions,  but  for  having  re- 
tained a  position  which  enabled  him  to  betray  his  party. 
He  compared  Peel  to  the  Lord  High- Admiral  of  the  Turk- 
ish fleet,  who,  at  a  great  warlike  crisis,  when  he  was  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  finest  armament  that  ever  left  the  Dar- 
danelles since  the  days  of  Solyman  the  Great,  steered  at 
once  for  the  enemy's  port,  and  when  arraigned  as  a  traitor, 
said  that  he  really  saw  no  use  in  prolonging  a  hopeless 
struggle,  and  that  he  had  accepted  the  command  of  the 
fleet  only  to  put  the  Sultan  out  of  pain  by  bringing  the 
struggle  to  a  close  at  once.  "  Well  do  we  remember,  on 
this  side  of  the  House — not,  perhaps,  without  a  blush — the 
eflPorts  we  made  to  raise  him  to  the  bench  where  he  now 
sits.  Who  does  not  remember  the  sacred  cause  of  Protec- 
tion for  which  sovereigns  were  thwarted,  Parliament  dis- 
solved, and  a  nation  taken  in?"  "I  belong  to  a  party 
which  can  triumph  no  more,  for  we  have  nothing  left  on 
our  side  except  the  constituencies  which  we  have  not  be- 
trayed." He  denounced  Peel  as  "  a  man  who  never  origi- 
nates an  idea ;  a  watcher  of  the  atmosphere ;  a  man  who 
takes  his  observations,  and  when  he  finds  the  wind  in  a 
particular  quarter  trims  his  sails  to  suit  it,"  and  he  de- 
clared that  "  such  a  man  may  be  a  powerful  minister,  but 
he  is  no  more  a  great  statesman  than  the  man  who  gets  up 
behind  a  carriage  is  a  great  whip." 

"  The  opportune,"  says  Mr.  Disraeli  himself  in  his  "  Lord 

George  Bentinck,"  "in  a  popular  assembly  has  sometimes 

more  success  than  the  weightiest  efforts  of  research  and 

reason. "    He  is  alluding  to  this  very  speech,  of  which  he 

Vol.  I.— 20 


3o6 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


■  lite'" 

ill 


tf-  \  '•' 


says,  with  perhaps  a  superfluous  modesty,  that  "  it  was  the 
long-constrained  passion  of  the  House  that  now  found  a 
vent,  far  more  than  the  sallies  of  the  speaker,  that  changed 
the  frigid  silence  of  this  senate  into  excitement  and  tumult. " 
The  speech  was  indeed  opportune.  But  it  was  opportune 
in  a  far  larger  sense  than  as  a  timely  philippic  rattling  up 
an  exhausted  and  disappointed  House.  That  moment 
when  Disraeli  rose  was  the  very  tuming-poi-"  t  of  the  for- 
tunes of  his  party.  There  was  genius,  there  was  positive 
statesmanship,  in  seizing  so  boldly  and  so  adroitly  on  the 
moment.  It  would  have  been  a  great  thing  gained  for 
Peel  if  he  could  have  got  through  that  first  night  without 
any  alarm-note  of  opposition  from  his  own  side.  The  habits 
of  Parliamentary  discipline  are  very  clinging.  They  are 
hard  to  tear  away.  Every  impulse  of  association  and 
training  protests  against  the  very  effort  to  rend  them 
asunder.  A  once  powerful  minister  exercises  a  control 
over  his  long  obedient  followers  somewhat  like  that  of  the 
heart  of  the  Bruce  in  the  fine  old  Scottish  story.  Those 
who  once  followed  will  still  obey  the  name  and  the  symbol 
even  when  the  actual  power  to  lead  is  gone  forever.  If 
one  other  night's  habitude  had  been  added  to  the  long  dis- 
cipline that  bound  his  party  to  Peel,  if  they  had  allowed 
themselves  to  listen  to  that  declaration  of  the  session's 
first  night  without  murmur,  perhaps  they  might  never 
have  rebelled.  Mr.  Disraeli  drew  together  into  one  focus 
all  the  rays  of  their  gathering  anger  against  Peel,  and 
made  them  light  into  a  flame.  He  showed  the  genius  of 
the  born  leader  by  stepping  forth  at  the  critical  moment 
and  giving  the  word  of  command. 

From  that  hour  Mr.  Disraeli  was  the  real  leader  of  the 
Tory  squires ;  from  that  moment  his  voice  gave  the  word 
of  command  to  the  Tory  party.  There  was  peculiar  cour- 
age, too,  in  the  part  he  took.  He  must  have  known  that 
he  was  open  to  one  retort  from  Peel  that  might  have 
crushed  a  less  confident  man.  It  was  well  known  that 
when  Peel  was  coming  into  power  Disraeli  expected  to  be 


Mr.  Disraeli. 


507 


offered  a  place  of  some  kind  in  the  ministry,  and  would 
have  accepted  it.  Mr.  Disraeli  afterward  explained,  when 
Peel  made  allusion  to  the  fact,  that  he  never  had  put  him- 
self directly  forward  as  a  candidate  for  office,  but  there 
had  undoubtedly  been  some  negotiation  going  forward 
which  was  conducted  on  Mr.  Disraeli's  side  by  some  one 
who  supposed  he  was  doing  what  Disraeli  would  like  to 
have  done ;  and  Peel  had  not  taken  any  hint,  and  would 
not  in  any  way  avail  himself  of  Disraeli's  services.  Dis- 
raeli must  have  known  that  when  he  attacked  Peel,  the  latter 
would  hardly  fail  to  make  use  of  this  obvious  retort ;  but  he 
felt  little  daunted  on  that  score.  He  could  have  made  a 
fair  enough  defence  of  his  consistency  in  any  case,  but  he 
knew  very  well  that  what  the  indignant  Tories  wanted  just 
then  was  not  a  man  who  had  been  uniformly  consistent, 
but  one  who  could  attack  Sir  Robert  Peel  without  scruple 
and  with  effect.  Disraeli  made  his  own  career  by  the 
course  he  took  on  that  memorable  night,  and  he  also  made 
a  new  career  for  the  Tory  party. 

Now  that  he  had  proved  himself  so  brilliant  a  spadassin 
in  this  debate,  men  began  to  remember  that  he  had  dealt 
trenchant  blows  before.  Many  of  his  sentences  attacking 
Peel,  which  have  passed  into  familiar  quotation  almost  like 
proverbs,  were  spoken  in  1845.  He  had  accused  the  great 
minister  of  having  borrowed  his  tactics  from  the  Whigs. 
"  The  right  honorable  gentleman  caught  the  Whigs  bath- 
ing, and  he  walked  away  with  their  clothes.  He  has  left 
them  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  their  liberal  position,  and 
he  is  himself  a  strict  conservative  of  their  garments."  "  I 
look  on  the  right  honorable  gentleman  as  a  man  who  has 
tamed  the  shrew  of  Liberalism  by  her  own  tactics.  He  is 
the  political  Petruchio  who  has  outbid  you  all. "  "  If  the 
right  honorable  gentleman  would  only  stick  to  quotation, 
instead  of  having  recourse  to  obloquy,  he  may  rely  upon 
it  he  would  find  it  a  safer  weapon.  It  is  one  he  always 
wields  with  the  hand  of  a  master,  and  when  he  does  appeal 
to  any  authority  in  prose  or  verse,  he  is  sure  to  be  success- 


3o8 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


ful,  partly  becaLise  he  seldom  quotes  a  passage  that  has 
not  already  received  the  meed  of  Parliamentary  approba- 
tion. "  We  can  all  readily  understand  how  such  a  hit  as 
the  last  would  tell  in  the  case  of  an  orator  like  Peel,  who 
had  the  old-fashioned  way  of  introducing  long  quotations 
from  approved  classic  authors  into  his  speeches,  and  who 
not  unfrequently  introduced  citations  which  were  received 
with  all  the  better  welcome  by  the  House  because  of  the 
familiarity  of  their  language.  More  fierce  and  cutting 
was  the  reference  to  Canning,  with  whom  Peel  had  quar- 
relled, and  the  implied  contrast  of  Canning  with  Peel. 
Sir  Robert  had  cited  against  Disraeli  Canning's  famous 
lines  praying  to  be  saved  from  a  "  candid  friend. "  Disraeli 
seized  the  opportunity  thus  gi  ven.  "  The  name  of  Canning 
is  one,"  he  said,  "never  to  be  mentioned,  I  am  sure,  in 
this  House  without  emotion.  We  all  admire  his  genius ; 
we  all,  or  at  least  most  of  us,  deplore  his  untimely  end ; 
and  we  all  sympathize  with  him  in  his  severe  struggle  with 
supreme  prejudice  and  sublime  mediocrity,  with  inv3ter- 
ate  foes  and  with  candid  friends. "  The  phase  "  .sublime 
mediocrity"  had  a  marvellous  effect.  As  a  hostile  descrip- 
tion of  Peel's  character  it  had  enough  of  seeming  truth 
about  it  to  tell  most  effectively  alike  on  friends  and  ene- 
mies of  the  great  leader.  A  friend,  or  even  an  impartial 
enemy,  would  not  indeed  admit  that  it  accurately  described 
Peel's  intellect  and  position;  but  as  a  stroke  of  personal 
satire  it  touched  nearly  enough  the  characteristics  of  its 
object  to  impress  itself  at  once  as  a  master-hit  on  the 
minds  of  all  who  caught  its  instant  purpose.  The  words 
remained  in  use  long  after  the  controversy  and  its  occasion 
had  passed  away ;  and  it  was  allowed  that  an  unfriendly 
and  bitter  critic  could  hardly  have  found  a  phrase  more 
suited  to  its  ungenial  purpose  or  more  likely  to  connect 
itself  at  once  in  the  public  mind  with  the  name  of  him  who 
was  its  object.  Mr.  Disraeli  did  not,  in  fact,  greatly  ad- 
mire Canning.  He  has  left  a  very  disparaging  criticism 
of  Canning  as  an  orator  in  one  of  his  novels.    On  the  other 


Mr.  Disraeli. 


309 


hand,  he  has  shown  in  his  "  Life  of  Lord  George  Bentinck" 
that  he  could  do  full  justice  to  some  of  the  greatest  quali- 
ties of  Sir  Robert  Peel.     But  at  the  moment  of  his  attack- 
ing Peel  and  crying  up  Canning  he  was  only  concerned  to 
disparage  the  one,  and  it  was  on  this  account  that  he 
eulogized  the  other.     The  famous  sentence,  too,  in  which 
he  declared  that  a  Conservative  Government  was  an  "  or- 
ganized hypocrisy,"  was  spoken  during  the  debates  of  the 
session  of  1845,  before  the  explanation  of  the  minister  on 
the  subject  of  Free-trade.     All  these  brilliant  things  men 
now  began  to  recall.     Looking  back  from  this  distance  of 
time,  we  can  see  well  enough  that  Mr.  Disraeli  had  dis- 
played his  peculiar  genius  long  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons took  the  pains  to  recognize  it.      From  the  night  cf  the 
opening  of  the  session  of  1846  it  was  never  questioned. 
Thenceforward   he  was  really  the  mouthpiece  and    the 
sense-carrier  of  his  party.     For  some  time  to  come,  indeed, 
his  nominal  post  might  have  seemed  to  be  only  that  of  its 
bravo.     The  country  gentlemen  who  cheered  to  the  echo 
his  fierce  attacks  on  Peel  during  the  debates  of  the  session 
of   1846  had  probably  not  the  slightest  suspicion  that  the 
daring  rhetorician  who  was  so  savagely  revenging  them 
on  their  now  hated  leader  was  a  man  of  as  cool  a  judg- 
ment, as  long  a  head,  and  as  complete  a  capacity  for  the 
control  of  a  party  as  any  politician  who  for  generations 
had  appeared  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

One  immediate  effect  of  the  turn  thus  given  by  Disraeli's 
timely  intervention  in  the  debate  was  the  formation  of  a 
Protection  party  in  the  House  of  Commons.  The  leader- 
ship of  this  perilous  adventure  was  intrusted  to  Lord 
George  Bentinck,  a  sporting  nobleman  of  energetic  char- 
acter, great  tenacity  of  purpose  and  conviction,  and  a  not 
inconsiderable  aptitude  for  politics,  which  had  hitherto 
had  no  opportunity  for  either  exercising  or  displaying  it- 
self. Lord  George  Bentinck  had  sat  in  eight  Parliaments 
without  taking  part  in  any  great  debate.  When  he  was 
suddenly  drawn  into  the  leadership  of  the  Protection  party 


JIO 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


"jf'if 


in  the  House  of  Commons,  he  gave  himself  up  to  it  en- 
tirely. He  had  at  first  only  joined  the  party  as  one  of  its 
organizers ;  but  he  showed  himself  in  many  respects  well 
fitted  for  the  leadership,  and  the  choice  of  leaders  was  in 
any  case  very  limited.  When  once  he  had  accepted  the 
position,  he  was  unwearying  in  his  attention  to,  its  duties ; 
and,  indeed,  up  to  the  moment  of  his  sudden  and  premature 
death  he  never  allowed  himself  any  relaxation  from  the 
cares  it  imposed  on  him.  Mr.  Disraeli,  in  hii  "  Life  of 
Lord  George  Bentinck,"  has  indeed  overrated,  with  the 
pardonable  extravagance  of  friendship,  the  intellectual 
gifts  of  his  leader.  Bentinck's  abilities  were  hardly  even 
of  the  second  class;  and  the  amount  of  knowledge  which 
he  brought  to  bear  on  the  questions  he  discussed  with  so 
much  earnestness  and  energy  was  often  and  of  necessity 
little  better  than  mere  cram.  But  in  Parliament  the  es- 
sential qualities  of  a  leader  are  not  great  powers  of  intel- 
lect. A  man  of  cool  head,  good  temper,  firm  will,  and 
capacity  for  appreciating  the  serviceable  qualities  of  other 
men,  may  always,  provided  that  he  has  high  birth  and 
great  social  influence,  make  a  very  successful  leader,  even 
though  he  be  wanting  altogether  in  the  higher  attributes 
of  eloquence  and  statesmanship.  It  may  be  doubted 
whether,  on  the  whole,  great  eloquence  and  genius  are 
necessary  at  all  to  the  leader  of  a  party  in  Parliament  in 
times  not  specially  troublous.  Bentinck  had  patience, 
energy,  good-humor,  and  considerable  appreciation  of  the 
characters  of  men.  If  he  had  a  bad  voice,  was  a  poor 
speaker,  talked  absolute  nonsense  about  protective  duties 
and  sugar  and  giifino,  and  made  up  absurd  calculations  to 
prove  impossibilities  and  paradoxes,  he  at  least  always 
spoke  in  full  faith,  and  was  only  the  more  necessary  to 
his  party  because  he  could  honestly  continue  to  believe  in 
the  old  doctrines,  no  matter  what  political  economy  and 
hard  facts  might  say  to  the  contrary. 

The  secession  was,  therefore,  in  full  course  of  organiza- 
tion.    On  January  27th  Sir  Robert  Peel  came  forward  to 


n&'- 


Mr.  Disraeli. 


3" 


0  it  en- 
le  of  its 
cts  well 
s  was  in 
)ted  the 
i  duties ; 
^mature 
rom  the 
Life  of 
ith  the 
Ilectual 
lly  even 
B  which 
(vith  so 
scessity 
the  es- 
f  intel- 
ill,  and 
)f  other 
•th  and 
r,  even 
ributes 
oubted 
[us  are 
lent  in 
tience, 

of  the 
a  poor 

duties 
ions  to 
always 
;ary  to 
ieve  in 
ay  and 

faniza- 
rard  to 


explain  his  financial  policy.  It  is  almost  superfluous  to 
say  that  the  most  intense  anxiety  prevailed  all  over  the 
country,  and  that  the  House  was  crowded.  An  incident 
of  the  night,  which  then  created  a  profound  sensation, 
would  not  be  worth  noticing  now  but  for  the  evidence  it 
gives  of  the  bitterness  with  which  the  Protection  party 
were  filled,  and  of  the  curiously  bad  taste  of  which  gentle- 
men of  position  and  education  can  be  gfuilty  under  the  in- 
spiration of  a  blind  fanaticism.  There  is  something  ludi- 
crous in  the  pompous  tone,  as  of  righteous  indignation 
deliberately  repressed,  with  which  Mr.  Disraeli  in  his 
"Life  of  Bentinck,"  announces  the  event.  The  proceed- 
ings in  the  House  of  Commons,  he  says,  "  were  ushered  in 
by  a  startling  occurrence."  What  was  this  portentous 
preliminary?  "  His  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  Consort, 
attended  by  the  Master  of  the  Horse,  appeared  and  took 
his  seat  in  the  body  of  the  House  to  listen  to  the  statement 
of  the  First  Minister."  In  other  words,  there  was  to  be  a 
statement  of  great  importance  and  a  debate  of  profound 
interest,  and  the  husband  of  the  Queen  was  anxious  to  be 
a  listener.  The  Prince  Consort  did  not  understand  that 
because  he  had  married  the  Queen  he  was  therefore  to  be 
precluded  froLi  hearing  a  discussion  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. The  poorest  man  and  the  greatest  man  in  the  land 
were  alike  free  to  occupy  a  seat  in  one  of  the  galleries  of 
the  House,  and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  the  Prince 
Consort  fancied  that  he  too  might  listen  to  a  debate  with- 
out unhinging  the  British  Constitution.  Lord  George 
Bentinck  and  the  Protectionists  were  aflame  with  indigna- 
tion. They  saw  in  the  quiet  presence  of  the  intelligent 
gentleman  who  came  to  listen  to  the  discussion  an  attempt 
to  overawe  the  Commons  and  compel  them  to  bend  to  the 
will  of  the  Crown.  It  is  not  easy  to  read  without  a  feeling  of 
shame  the  absurd  and  unseemly  comments  which  were  made 
upon  this  harmless  incident.  The  Queen  herself  has  given 
an  explanation  of  the  Prince's  visit  which  is  straightfor- 
ward and  dignified.  "  The  Prince  merely  went,  as  the  Prince 


]?«"«'•■ 


jI4 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


I  ■  M  i   »f'     t 


A 


l!*]  v; : 


of  Wales  and  the  Queen's  other  sons  do,  for  once,  to  hear 
a  fine  debate  which  is  so  useful  to  all  princes. "  "  But  this," 
the  Queen  ad  Is,  "he  naturally  felt  unable  to  do  again." 

The  Prime-minister  announced  his  policy.  His  object 
was  to  abandon  the  sliding-scale  altogether ;  but  for  the 
present  he  intended  to  impose  a  duty  of  ten  shillings  a 
quarter  on  com  when  the  price  of  it  was  under  forty-eight 
shillings  a  quarter;  to  reduce  that  duty  by  one  shilling  for 
every  shilling  of  rise  in  price  until  it  reached  fifty-three 
shillings  a  quarter,  when  the  duty  should  fall  to  four  shil- 
lings. This  an  angement  was,  however,  only  to  hold  good 
for  three  years,  at  the  end  of  which  time  protective  duties 
on  grain  were  to  be  wholly  abandoned.  Peel  explained 
that  he  intended  gradually  to  apply  the  principle  of  Free- 
trade  to  manufactures  and  every  description  of  produce, 
bearing  in  mind  the  necessity  of  providing  for  the  expen- 
diture of  the  country,  and  of  smoothing  away  some  of  tho 
difficulties  which  a  sudden  withdrawal  of  protection  might 
cause.  The  differential  duties  on  sugar,  which  were  pro- 
fessedly intended  to  protect  the  growers  of  free  sugars 
against  the  competition  of  those  who  cultivated  sugar  by 
the  use  of  slave  labor,  were  to  be  diminished,  but  not 
abolished.  The  duties  on  the  importation  of  foreign  cattle 
were  to  be  at  once  removed.  In  order  to  compensate  the 
agricultural  interests  for  the  gradual  withdrawal  of  pro- 
tective duties,  there  were  to  be  some  readjustments  of  local 
burdens.  We  need  not  uvell  much  on  this  part  of  the  ex- 
planation. We  are  familiar  in  late  years  with  the  ingeni- 
ous manner  in  which  the  principle  of  the  readjustment  of 
local  burdens  is  worked  in  the  hope  of  conciliating  the  agri- 
cultural interests.  These  readjustments  are  not  usually  re- 
ceived with  any  great  p^ratitude  or  attended  by  any  particu- 
lar success.  In  this  instance  Sir  Robert  Peel  could  hardly 
have  laid  much  serious  stress  on  them.  If  the  land-owners 
and  farmers  had  really  any  just  ground  of  complaint  in  the 
abolition  of  protection,  the  salve  which  was  applied  to  their 
wound  would  scarcely  have  caused  them  to  forget  its  pains. 


Mr.  Disraeli. 


3^3 


The  important  part  of  the  explanation,  so  far  as  history  is 
concerned,  consisted  in  the  fact  that  Peel  proclaimed  him- 
self  an  absolute  convert  to  the  Free-trade  principle,  and  that 
the  introduction  of  the  principle  into  all  departments  of 
our  commercial  legislation  was,  according  to  his  intention« 
to  be  a  mere  question  of  time  and  convenience.  The 
struggle  was  to  be  between  Protection  and  Free-trade. 

Not  that  the  proposals  of  the  ministry  wholly  satisfied 
the  professed  Free-traders.  These  latter  would  have  en- 
forced, if  they  could,  an  immediate  application  of  the 
principle  without  the  interval  of  three  years,  and  the 
devices  and  shifts  which  were  to  be  put  in  operation  dur- 
ing that  middle  time.  But  of  course,  although  they 
prcjsed  their  protest  in  the  form  of  an  amendment,  they 
had  no  idea  of  not  taking  what  they  could  get  when  the 
amendment  failed  to  secure  the  approval  of  the  majority. 
Ths  Protectionist  amendment  amounted  to  a  distinct  pro- 
posal that  the  policy  of  the  Government  be  absolutely  re- 
jected ^f  the  House.  The  debate  lasted  for  twelve  nights, 
and  at  the  end  the  Protectionists  had  240  votes  against  337 
given  on  behalf  of  the  policy  of  the  Government.  The 
majority  of  97  was  not  quite  so  large  as  the  Government 
had  anticipated ;  and  the  result  was  to  encourage  the  Pro- 
tectionists in  their  plans  of  opposition.  The  opportunities 
of  obstruction  were  many.  The  majority  just  mentioned 
was  merely  in  favor  of  going  into  committee  of  the  whole 
House  to  consider  the  existing  Customs  and  Corn  Acts; 
but  every  single  financial  scheme  which  the  minister  had 
to  propose  must  be  introduced,  debated,  and  carried,  if  it 
was  to  be  carried,  as  a  separate  bill.  We  shall  not  ask 
our  readers  to  follow  us  into  the  details  of  these  long 
discussions.  They  were  not  important;  they  were  often 
not  dignified.  They  more  frequently  concerned  themselves 
about  the  conduct  and  personal  consistency  of  the  minister 
than  about  the  merits  of  his  policy.  The  arguments  in 
favor  of  Protection,  which  doubtless  seemed  effective  to 
the  country  gentlemen  then,  seem  like  the  prattle  of  chil- 


3H 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times, 


dren  now.  There  were,  indeed,  some  exciting  passages 
in  the  debates.  For  these  the  House  was  mainly  indebted 
to  the  rhetoric  of  Mr.  Disraeli.  That  indefatigable  and 
somewhat  reckless  champion  occupied  himself  with  inces- 
sant attacks  on  the  Prime-minister.  He  described  Peel 
as  "a  trader  on  other  people's  intelligence,  a  political 
burglar  of  other  men's  ideas."  "The  occupants  of  the 
Treasury  bench,"  he  said,  were  "  political  peddlers, who  had 
bought  their  party  in  the  cheapest  market  and  sold  it  in 
the  dearest."  This  was  strong  language.  But  it  was, 
after  all,  more  justifiable  than  the  attempt  Mr.  Disraeli 
made  to  revive  an  old  and  bitter  controversy  between  Sir 
Robert  Peel  and  Mr.  Cobden,  which,  for  the  sake  of  the 
former,  had  better  have  been  forgotten.  Three  years 
before,  Mr.  Edward  Drummond,  private  secretary  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  was  shot  by  an  assassin.  There  could  be 
no  doubt  that  the  victim  liad  been  mistaken  for  the  Prime- 
minister  himself.  The  assassin  turned  out  to  be  a  lunatic, 
and  as  such  was  found  not  guilty  of  the  murder,  and  was 
consigned  to  a  lunatic  asylum.  The  event  naturally  had 
a  profound  effect  on  Sir  Robert  Peel ;  and  during  one  of 
the  debates  on  Free-trade,  Mr.  Cobden  happening  to  say 
that  he  would  hold  the  Prime-minister  responsible  for  the 
condition  of  the  country.  Peel,  in  an  extraordinary  burst  of 
exitement,  interpreted  the  words  as  a  threat  to  expose  him 
to  the  attack  of  an  assassin.  Nothing  could  be  more  pain- 
fully absurd ;  and  nothing  could  better  show  the  unreason- 
ing and  discreditable  hatred  of  the  Tories  at  that  time  for 
any  one  who  opposed  the  policy  of  Peel  than  the  fact  that 
they  actually  cheered  their  leader  again  and  again  when 
he  made  this  passionate  and  half-frenzied  charge  on  one 
of  the  puiest  and  noblest  men  who  ever  sat  in  the  English 
Parliament,  Peel  soon  recovered  his  senses.  He  saw  the 
error  of  which  he  had  been  guilty,  and  regretted  it ;  and 
it  ought  to  have  been  consigned  to  forgetfulness ;  but  Mr. 
Disraeli,  in  repelling  a  charge  made  against  him  of  in- 
dulging in  unjustifiable  personalities,  revived  the  whole 


♦  « 


Mr.  Disraeli. 


315 


story,  and  reminded  the  House  of  Commons  that  the 
Prime-minister  had  charged  the  leader  of  the  Free-trade 
League  with  inciting  assassins  to  murder  him.  This  un- 
justifiable attempt  to  rekindle  an  old  quarrel  h^d,  how- 
ever, no  other  effect  than  to  draw  from  Sir  Robert  Peel  a 
renewed  expression  of  apology  for  the  charge  he  had  made 
against  Mr.  Cobden,  "  in  the  course  of  a  heated  debate, 
when  I  put  an  erroneous  construction  on  some  expressions 
used  by  the  honorable  member  for  Stockport."  Mr.  Cob- 
den declared  that  the  explanation  made  by  Peel  was 
entirely  satisfactory,  and  expressed  his  hope  that  no  one 
on  either  side  of  the  House  would  attempt  to  revive  the 
subject  or  make  further  allusion  to  it. 

The  Government  prevailed.  It  would  be  superfluous  to 
go  into  any  details  as  to  the  progress  of  the  Com  Bill. 
Enough  to  say  that  the  third  reading  of  the  bill  passed 
the  House  of  Commons  on  May  15th,  by  a  majority  of  98 
votes.  The  bill  was  at  once  sent  up  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  and,  by  means  chiefly  of  the  earnest  advice  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  was  carried  through  that  House 
without  much  serious  opposition.  But  June  2Sth,  the  day 
when  the  bill  was  read  for  a  third  time  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  was  a  memorable  day  in  the  Parliamentary  annals 
of  England.  It  saw  the  fall  of  the  ministry  who  had  car- 
ried to  success  the  greatest  piece  of  legislation  that  had 
been  introduced  since  Lord  Grey's  Reform  Bill. 

A  Coercion  Bill  for  Ireland  was  the  measure  which 
brought  this  catastrophe  on  the  Government  of  Sir  Robert 
Peel.  While  the  Com  Bill  was  yet  passing  through  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  Government  felt  called  upon,  in 
consequence  of  the  condition  of  crime  and  outrage  in 
Ireland,  to  introduce  a  Coercion  Bill.  Lord  George  Ben- 
tinck  at  first  gave  the  measure  his  support ;  but  during 
the  Whitsuntide  recess  he  changed  his  views.  He  now 
declared  that  he  had  only  supported  the  bill  on  the  assur- 
ance of  the  Government  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  safety  of  life  in  Ireland,  and  that  as  the  Govern- 


^i6 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


ment  had  not  pressed  it  on  in  advance  of  every  other 
measure — especially,  no  doubt,  of  the  Com  Bill — he  could 
not  believe  that  it  was  really  a  matter  of  imminent  neces- 
sity; and  that,  furthermore,  he  had  no  longer  any  con- 
fidence in  the  Government,  and  could  not  trust  them  with 
extraordinary  powers.  In  truth,  the  bill  was  placing  the 
Government  in  a  serious  difficulty.  All  the  Irish  followers 
of  O'Connell  would,  of  course,  oppose  the  coercion 
measure.  The  Whigs,  when  out  of  office,  have  usually 
made  it  a  rule  to  oppose  coercion  bills,  if  they  do  not  come 
accompanied  with  some  promises  of  legislative  reform  and 
concession.  The  English  Radical  members,  Mr.  Cobden 
and  his  followers,  were  almost  sure  to  oppose  it.  Under 
these  circumstances,  it  seemed  probable  enough  that  if  the 
Protectionists  joined  with  the  other  opponents  of  the 
Coercion  Bill,  the  Government  must  be  defeated.  The 
temptation  was  too  great.  As  Mr.  Disraeli  himself  can- 
didly says  of  his  party,  "  Vengeance  had  succeeded  in  most 
breasts  to  the  more  sanguine  sentiment.  The  field  was 
lost,  but  at  any  rate  there  should  be  retribution  for  those 
who  had  betrayed  it. "  The  question  with  many  of  the 
indignant  Protectionists  was,  as  Mr.  Disraeli  himself  puts 
it,  "  How  was  Sir  Robert  Peel  to  be  turned  out?"  It 
soon  became  evident  that  he  could  be  turned  out  by  those 
who  detested  him  and  longed  for  vengeance  voting  against 
him  on  the  Coercion  Bill.  This  was  done.  The  fiercer 
Protectionists  voted  with  the  Tree-traders,  the  Whigs,  and 
the  Irish  Catholic  and  Liberal  members,  and,  after  a  de- 
bate of  much  bitterness  and  passion,  the  division  on  the 
second  reading  of  the  Coercion  Bill  took  place  on  Thurs- 
day, June  25th,  and  the  ministry  were  left  in  a  minority 
of  73.  Two  hundred  and  nineteen  votes  only  were  given 
for  the  second  reading  of  the  bill,  and  292  against  it. 
Some  eighty  of  the  Protectionists  followed  Lord  George 
Bentinck  into  the  lobby  to  vote  against  the  bill,  and  their 
votes  settled  the  question.  Mr.  Disraeli  has  given  a 
somewhat  pompous  description  of  the  scene  "  as  the  Pro- 


Jl 


Mr.  Disraeli. 


3^1 


tectionists  passed  in  defile  before  the  minister  to  the  hos- 
tile lobby. "   "  Fallas  te  hoc  vulture^  Pallas  immolate "  ciies  the 
hero  of  the  ^neid,  as  he  plunges  his  sword  into  the  heart 
of  his  rival.     "Protection  kills  you,  not  your  Coercion 
Bill,"  the  irreconcilable  Protectionists  might  have  said  as 
they  trooped  past  the  ministry.     Chance  had  put  within 
their  grasp  the  means  of  vengeance,  and  they  had  seized  it. 
The  Peel  Ministry  had  fallen  in  its  very  hour  of  triumph. 
Three  days  after  Sir  Robert  Peel  announced  his  resigna- 
tion of  office.     His  speech  '*  was  considered  one  of  glorifica- 
tion ard  pique,"  says  Mr.  Disraeli.    It  does  not  so  impress 
most  readers.     It  appears  to  have  been  full  of  dignity, 
and  of  emotion,  not  usual  with  Peel,  but  not  surely,  under 
the  circumstances,  incompa  ';ible  with  dignity.    It  contained 
that  often-quoted  tribute  to  the  services  of  a  former  op- 
ponent, in  which  Peel  declared  that  "the  name  which 
ought  to  be  and  which  will  be  associated  with  the  success 
of  these  measures  is  the  name  of  the  man  who,  acting,  I 
believe,  from  pure  and  disinterested  motives,  has  advo- 
cated their  cause  with  untiring  energy,  and  with  appeals 
to  reason  enforced  by  an  eloquence  the  more  to  be  admired 
because  it  is  unaflEected  and  unadorned, — the  name  of 
Richard  Cobden. "    An  added  effect  was  given  to  this  well 
deserved  panegyric  by  the  little  irregularity  which  the 
Prime-minister  committed  when  he  mentioned  in  debate 
a  member  by  name.     The  closing  sentence  of  the  speech 
was  eloquent  and  touching.     Many  would  censure  him, 
Peel  said ;  his  name  would  perhaps  lie  execrated  by  the 
monopolist,  who  would  maintain  protection  for  his  own 
individual  benefit;  "but  it  may  be  that  I  shall  leave  a 
name  sometimes  remembered  with  expressions  of  good- 
will in  those  places  which  are  the  abode  of  men  whose  lot 
it  is  to  labor  and  to  earn  their  daily  bread  by  the  sweat  of 
their  brow — a  name  remembered  with  expressions  of  good- 
will when  they  shall  recreate  their  exhausted  strength 
with  abundant  and  untaxed  food,  the  sweeter  because  it 
is  no  longer  leavened  with  a  sense  of  injustice." 


3i8 


A  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 


The  great  minister  fell.  So  great  a  success  followed 
by  so  sudden  and  complete  a  fall  is  hardly  recor«.!ed  in  the 
Parliamentary  history  of  our  modem  times.  Peel  had 
crushed  O'Connell  and  carried  Free-trade,  and  O'Con- 
nell  and  the  Protectionists  had  life  enough  yet  to 
pull  him  down.  He  is  as  a  conqueror  who.  having  won 
the  great  victory  of  his  life,  is  struck  by  a  hostile 
hand  in  some  by-way  as  he  passes  home  to  enjoy  his 
triumph. 


14 


)llowed 
i  in  the 
tel  had 
O'Con- 
yet  to 
ag  won 
hostile 
joy  his 


li 


